OAT Varieties for the Winter Wheat Belt Yield Well

Three new oat varieties belonging to the common oat group (Avena sativa L.) have achieved economic importance in the winter wheat belt. They are Albion (Iowa No. 103), Richland (Iowa No. 105), and Iowar. All are early varieties and all were developed as pure-line selections from the well-known and widely grown Kherson or Sixty-Day oat, introduced into this country from Russia by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station about 30 years ago. They were produced in extensive cooperative oat-breeding experiments conducted by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station and the United States Department of Agriculture. "Albion and Richland were selected in 1906 by L. C. Burnett and were first distributed to Iowa farmers as Iowa Nos. 103 and 105 in 1913 and 1914, respectively. The Iowar was isolated by Mr. Burnett in 1910 and first distributed to farmers in 1919.

Because of their white kernels the Albion and Iowar have met with the most favor. It was estimated that the Albion was grown on nearly 1,400,000 acres in Iowa alone in 1924, with perhaps an equal or greater acreage distributed throughout central Illinois, northern Missouri, northeastern Kansas, and eastern Nebraska. Iowar was grown on about 800,000 acres in Iowa in 1924. Iowar has a little taller straw and is from two to three days later than Albion in maturity. It also is superior to Albion in yielding power, and therefore is the more promising of the two strains. It already is widely distributed in the more northern portion of the winter wheat belt, where it is replacing the Albion to some extent.

The Richland has been less popular because of its short straw and yellow kernels. Its distribution, therefore, has been limited. In yielding power Richland has been superior to Albion and about the equal of Iowar. It is primarily a special-purpose oat for growing on low, rich soils, where taller and later varieties frequently suffer loss by lodging. Richland also is resistant to stem rust of oats, which gives it exceptional value in years of severe rust epidemics, such as occurred in the northern portion of the winter-wheat belt in 1926.

The Fulghum oat probably originated as a natural hybrid. It was developed in southeastern Georgia about 20 years ago as a plant selection from the Red Rustproof (Red Texas) variety, which until recently was the standard oat of the South. The Department of Agriculture had no part in its selection but was largely concerned in its testing and distribution. It is a so-called red oat, belonging to the same group (Avena byzantina C. Koch) as Red Rustproof and Burt. It is grown both as a winter and as a spring variety. However, in recent years it has become much more important as a spring-sown variety, especially in the transition zone between the southern winter-oat and northern spring-oat belts. It is now grown most extensively in Kansas, but is becoming more popular each succeeding year in southern Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, and northern Texas, where it is largely replacing Burt. Its early maturity and ability to produce satisfactory yields under conditions which usually are unfavorable to early varieties of common oats have made Fulghum the most important new variety of American oats.

A recent mass selection from Fulghum, known as Kanota, originating in Texas and developed in Kansas, has become popular, especially in Kansas. Of the 1,712,000 acres of oats grown in Kansas in 1925 over 700,000 acres were devoted to Kanota. It is believed that this area for 1926 may have exceeded 1,000,000 acres.

If these new oats on the average outyield the previously grown varieties by only 3 bushels to the acre, which is an extremely conservative estimate, the aggregate increase in production amounts to several million bushels. It is probable that the Iowa varieties were grown on at least 6,000,000 acres, and the Fulghum (Kanota) on 2,000,000 acres in 1926. This would mean an increase of 24,000,000 bushels of oats with very little additional cost to the farmer.