Williams: a milling quality oat for Western Australia

Page last updated: Tuesday, 22 May 2018 - 12:02pm

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Williams is a milling oat variety which was released in September 2013. It is a mid-tall, high yielding line with an improved disease resistance profile compared to current varieties.

Williams has been released to partner the variety Bannister as the benchmark milling quality oat varieties for Western Australian production. These two varieties are expected to enhance on-farm oat profitability as well as Western Australia's reputation as a world leader in the production of high quality milling oats for export, either exported directly as grain or after processing by local milling companies. With growing demand for export milling oats, it is expected that these varieties will equip industry with the opportunity to capture expanding high value human food markets and provide grain growers with more profitable and productive alternatives to high yielding feed oats.

Breeding

Williams was tested as WAOAT2332. It was bred by the National Oat Breeding program with research and technical input from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI).

Pedigree

Williams was crossed as 98Q954-13-37.

Short pedigree: Pennlo(P25144)/Murray(86Q845-59)//Carrolup(90Q209-21-34)/3/(93Q496-13)TAM386(Quaker-87-151)/Carrolup.

Plant characteristics

  • Mid-tall oat, slightly taller than Kojonup and about 10cm shorter than Carrolup.
  • Early maturing, flowers slightly earlier than Carrolup and 7-10 days earlier than Kojonup.
  • Good straw strength and standibility.

Herbicide tolerance

Williams registered yield loss in a trial with Diuron 1 litre (L) + Dual® 0.5 litres per hectare (L/ha) (pre-emergent), Broadside® 1L, Diuron 0.5L + MCPA 0.5L and 2, 4-D (Amine) 625 1.3L/ha applied post-emergent at label recommended timing in 2012 at Katanning on a loamy sand soil. It also registered low crop safety margin with Amicide Advance 700 1.5L/ha applied at Z31. The variety is being tested further in 2013 to confirm these results which will be published on the National Variety Testing (NVT) website.

Yield

Nationally, Williams is the highest yielding milling oat variety in the National Variety Testing (NVT) trials. In WA its mean yield across AgZones has been 23% higher than Carrolup and 13% higher than Wandering.

Table 1 Average grain yields (t/ha) in WA 2012-2016. (Data courtesy of National Oat Breeding Program and NVT. Analysis by SAGI)
Variety AgZone 2 AgZone 3 AgZone 4 AgZone 5 Agzone 6
Bannister 4.3 4.1 2.5 3.4 4.4
Carrolup 3.6 3.6 2.2 2.8 3.3
Durack 3.5 3.5 2.1 2.8 3.3
Kojonup 3.7 3.6 2.3 2.9 4.0
Kowari 3.8 3.7 2.3 3.0 4.0
Mitika 3.8 3.8 2.3 3.0 3.9
Wandering 4.3 4.0 2.7 3.5 3.8
Williams 4.2 4.2 2.3 3.3 4.1
Yallara 3.7 3.8 2.1 2.9 2.9

Contact information

Author

Jennifer Garlinge