Responding to growers’ needs through oat research
Established in 2021, the Oats Ireland Forum is a collaboration between Teagasc and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), with a goal to share knowledge and identify research priorities to assist the sector in addressing future challenges.
Atik Raham, Teagasc Research Officer, provided an update on this forum and the work ongoing for the development of a Winter Oat Guide at the Crops and Cover Crop Cultivations Open Day on June 21st. Oats Ireland Forum members include growers, industry and SMEs, researchers and agronomists. An initial survey was completed to understand challenges and to provide strategic direction to research programmes.
In 2021, when questioned on the primary challenges to growing oats in Ireland, 40% of respondents highlighted the ‘increased presence of the oat mosaic virus’. As very little research had been conducted in this area, Atik said, a proposal for funding was written and a four-year PhD – funded by Teagasc and the Irish Seed Traders Association – has been granted. Through this research study, he said: “We are going to develop a molecular detection mechanism for the oat mosaic virus and we are going to survey Ireland for the prevalence of the virus.”
In the below video, Atik provides an overview of the Oats Ireland Forum and the development of the Winter Oat Guide:
Developing a winter oat guide
Another significant area of work being undertaken by Teagasc is the development of the Winter Oat Guide, which Atik expects to be presented to stakeholders in 2025. This is currently in the second year of a three-year study.
“This project is very important for us. Previously we have seen the impact of the Winter Wheat Guide and the Spring Barley Guide, which was developed by Teagasc and shaped our agronomic understanding for spring barley and winter wheat.
"Similarly, we want to develop a Winter Oat Guide and work is ongoing in there different locations – Cork, Carlow and Meath. We collect samples and data every week and we are analysing them to understand oat phenology, growth and development,” Atik said.
Other areas being measured include: growth stage; leaf area index; biomass; nutrient partitioning; sensor-based high-throughput phenotyping; and the calculation of resource / nitrogen use efficiency - all of which will feed into the final guide that will shape winter oat nutrient and agronomic practices in the future.
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