Two seed oat varieties relatively new to the commercial seed market could mean yield increases for grain and forage oat producers alike.
AC Lu and AC Murphy, developed by the late Solomon Kibite at the Agriculture Canada research centre in Lacombe, Alta., produce high yields, although they mature at much different rates.
“Comparison-wise, you’re looking at an early grain oat (AC Lu) versus a late forage oat (AC Murphy), so you’re dealing on the two ends of the spectrum on the maturity side,” said Kevin Elmy, a seed producer from Saltcoats, Sask., who has grown both lines for three years now.
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AC Lu represents a leap forward in oat breeding, said Dale Alderson, marketing manager for Western Canada with SeCan.
“This is a very early line that is a breakthrough in maintaining yield while reducing days to maturity, great for reseeding or delayed seeding, or for underseeding for greenfeed. That greenfeed harvest gives extra time for the underseed to grow at the end of the season.”
This shorter, more compact oat variety is said to have high yield potential, outperforming AC Ronald and CDC Dancer by 12 and 18 percent, respectively, in zone 2 soils. It matures up to five days earlier than those varieties and over a week earlier than higher yielding varieties like AC Morgan, which is good news for producers in northern areas.
The line also has good lodging resistance and a high test weight, according to field trials. However, its use is limited to Alberta and western Saskatchewan due to susceptibility to crown and stem rust.
Elmy said Kibite’s program used breeding lines to give AC Lu the best combination of yield and maturity of any cultivar developed for Western Canada.
“Last year, after the big frost of 2004, it still ran in the 130 bushels per acre range for us. Everything else was in that 110 bu. per acre,” Elmy said, adding that it produces strong straw and can be straight-cut.
The downside is that the kernels are not all that plump. However, there’s also a lower percentage of thin kernels. Elmy said this uniform kernel characteristic means the milling market is still open to this line, even though the market usually wants more plump varieties.
AC Murphy is a tall feed oat with maximum biomass per acre, designed for use as silage or greenfeed, said Alderson.
“In the past a lot of producers used whatever oat line they had access to,” he said. “Now, if the intention was to have a greenfeed line, a producer could in fact reduce his average cost of feed production by selecting a specific green oat line like AC Murphy.”
In field tests Murphy outyielded the popular Foothill variety by six percent when seeded in early May and harvested in late July for silage or greenfeed, performance reports say. It also boasts higher grain yield, improved lodging resistance, a higher percentage of plump kernels and a slightly lower percentage of thin kernels than Foothill.
Like AC Lu, Murphy is susceptible to rusts, so it is not well adapted to production in Manitoba, but is best suited for the less rust-prone areas of Alberta and western Saskatchewan.
Elmy said he grew the Murphy alongside CDC Baler, but soon dropped the latter variety because the Murphy had a better stand, thicker stems and higher yield.
“The Murphy’s taller, has stronger straw than the Baler, and in the Sask-atoon trials, what we’ve seen is 10 percent yield increase for tonnage over the Baler.”
Kibite developed AC Murphy so its silage and greenfeed had barley-like quality. It has good greenfeed characteristics in terms of protein, is late maturing and stays green for a long period.
“Last year when we were combining, the grain was dry, and the straw was green,” Elmy said. “It should have a nice fit into the compressed hay market, because of nice colour.”
Alderson said it’s ideal to have a range of genetic diversity when crossing seed lines, and oats offers that.
“Genetic diversity in oats has allowed breeders to generate a lot of different products.”
