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Then education and innovation objectives are set with the goal to improve the metrics. This benchmark will be based off the first two years of pulse and oat acres, and it will establish a baseline for pea and oat production through Avena.

While Field to Market continues to collect and catalogue data, the Avena project is moving into Phase 2, exploring systems and technologies that have the potential to improve soil health.

Intercropping and cover crops are two practices Avena is currently researching. Field to Market Canada has gone through steady growth since its inception two years ago, adding members, collecting new data and refining the Canadian Fieldprint Calculator.

Oats provide some allelopathic effect producing biochemicals which inhibit the growth of other plants although less than winter rye. Oats are not as good as some other cover crops at breaking up compacted subsoil, although they do loosen the upper layers of topsoil nicely. Just where you are going to sow.

Oats do not add nitrogen, and unlike flowering cover crops, they do not attract beneficial insects assuming they are turned under or mowed before heading up and shedding pollen.

We plan ahead and order extra Organic spring oats in summer when making our big cover crop seed order. Oats will grow in soils with a pH range of 4.

They have some tolerance to flooding, but not much to heat or drought although more than rye. If you have less than 8 weeks until you need to plant the food crop, you are better off mowing when you can, or weed whipping, to prevent weeds seeding.

You could mow and tarp. There are also online videos. The basic idea is to mow the bed, cover it with a black plastic silage tarp, weight down the edges to get good soil contact and stop the tarp blowing away, and wait till the plant matter has disintegrated, or until you need to use the bed.

This will take several weeks in cold weather, although only a few weeks in summer. If you have a late-finishing fall crop, you could mow and tarp as soon as the crop is finished, and leave the bed tarped until spring.

Weeds germinate under the tarp, but then die without light. This can really help reduce the weed seedbank in the soil. It is particularly useful before sowing small seeds of slow-growing crops, such as carrots. Other quick cover crops, like buckwheat and soybeans, are not at all frost-hardy, so wait until after your last frost date to sow those.

In early spring, the air and the soil are cold, and sowing a fast-growing vegetable crop will not be successful with a gap of less than eight weeks. Crops take too long to grow at this time of year.

If you have more than eight weeks you could try those fast-growing vegetables: kale, spinach, Tokyo bekana, radishes, chard, lots of salad crops, senposai, mizuna, tatsoi, land cress. Or try Eat-All Greens , an idea from Carol Deppe. Patches of carefully chosen cooking greens are sown in a small patch.

Another way we have used oats in spring is between rows of peas grown on the flat, not in beds. We sowed the oats the same day as the peas, and lightly tilled the oats in.

We mowed the oats as needed during the pea training and harvest period to make access easy. If you have a bed with no crop planned for the whole season, you could grow a Green Fallow. You can plant long-term cover crops to replenish the soil.

In this map, no field studies including biological control agents were identified. Future studies should also be directed toward the application of biological control agents in field experiments to investigate the efficacy of these agents and support nonchemical control strategies.

The use of biological control agents for FHB control is of special interest since effective chemical control is difficult to achieve due to the need for precise fungicide application timing [ 18 ]. Among the agricultural intervention management practices, soil preparation was evaluated in two studies for FHB control minimum-tillage and plowing and in another two studies to control crown rust and speckled blotch and to control leaf blotch and speckled blotch tillage and no-tillage.

In a third study, soil preparation plowing was evaluated to control BYDV, crown rust, and leaf blotch Table 6. Soil amendments were evaluated in four different studies to control BYDV, FHB, speckled blotch nitrogen fertilization , and stem melanosis copper fertilization.

Cultivar mixtures were tested in two studies and only for BYVD control. The inoculum level was evaluated in two different studies to control take-all and seedling blight. The seed rate was included in two different studies to control FHB and foot rot caused by Fusarium spp.

and Microdochium nivale , respectively , and sowing time was tested in one study for FHB control and in another study for leaf blotch, speckled blotch, crown and stem rust control.

Cropping systems conventional or organic systems and integrated crop-livestock systems agropastoral and agrosilvopastoral systems were evaluated in two different studies, and both were used for powdery mildew control.

The use of intercrops was used in one study to control the development of BYDV, crown rust, and leaf blotch. A seed thermal treatment was evaluated in one study for leaf blotch and loose smut control.

Crop rotation, lodging, and time of harvest were each evaluated once in different studies for the control of FHB. The climatic selection criteria limited the geographical distribution of the included studies to regions where the climate corresponds to the current Dfc, Dfb, and Cfb and future predicted Cfa climate in Sweden, according to Köppen—Geiger climate classification zones [ 13 ].

Thus, many studies from countries with oat production Fig. In the development of the systematic map protocol, different search strings were tested to gather the most eligible studies for disease management in the six important field crops in Sweden.

No set of papers for comprehensiveness test was compiled and thus this was not performed. The alternative search string captured two additional eligible articles [ 26 , 27 ], which could have been included in the systematic map. Therefore, future maps should include these words in the search string.

The selection criteria to include studies based on field trials resulted in a limited number of studies with nematodes since experiments with this organism group are normally conducted under controlled environmental conditions due to the difficulties of controlling their spread if applied in field trials, which results in a large environmental risk in terms of conducting field experiments.

As an example, the CCN is a nematode species that causes serious economic damage [ 3 ] to oat production and only three studies were identified as field trials, and all were conducted in the s.

Field experiments to evaluate fungicide efficiency and other agricultural cropping methods are often not officially published or published in reports in national language and are available for public use only on country-specific webpages. Thus, these sources may be difficult to identify and understand from outside the specific country or region where the study is published.

Breeding programs for host resistance are a key method for controlling plant diseases [ 28 ]. However, studies on breeding and prebreeding were not included since advancements in these articles are indirectly implemented in crop production, and new cultivars must also undergo registration before marketing.

All new cultivars are not announced in a scientific journal and thus are not included here. For Sweden and other countries, information about new cultivars is included in plant variety gazettes by country.

We have provided a database with literature from which disease management strategies can be extracted and used in updating plant protection recommendations. The method used in this study has great potential for developing sustainable crop protection strategies and could potentially be used for all types of crop management interventions.

Here, we have focused on one crop and only diseases, while crop protection also includes the management of weed and insect pests.

This systematic map collates and catalogs existing evidence for disease management of oat cultivated in temperate climates. Although relevant field studies for oat disease management exist, the map highlights the low quantity of field research on this topic and the resulting knowledge gaps.

For instance, no oat field studies with biological control agents were found. Host resistance was the intervention management most used in the studies included in the systematic map, and this approach is currently the most applied disease management strategy to control the main oat diseases worldwide [ 3 , 9 ].

Oat breeding programs for disease resistance, however, still face many challenges. The newly resistant cultivars to rust diseases have short lifespans an average of 5 years due to the high evolutionary potential of rust pathogens [ 9 , 10 ], which leads to a constant evolution of new virulent variants.

As a result, continued breeding efforts to develop new cultivars with durable resistance to rust diseases are needed [ 29 ]. Breeding efforts should also be directed toward the development of oat cultivars with high resistance to FHB.

In addition, further research should focus on a combined approach with different management strategies effective in controlling disease and, at the same time, causing the least possible environmental impact.

It would be beneficial for all agricultural activities if this type of data would be published in an open access format.

The use of scientifically relevant study designs and statistical analysis of field trials are essential. Research on crop protection is often driven by a needs-driven research process, where stakeholders identify a problem or question that needs to be addressed with a systematic approach.

This systematic map has compiled an evidence base for use by researchers and extension organizations working in plant protection to identify new research topics that are relevant and need to be further studied.

Applied research is often based on the availability of funding for a particular disease, and the number of studies is often linked to the economic importance of a disease. Therefore, this systematic map can be useful for decision-makers and funding organizations to better prioritize research topics on plant protection that need further research, allowing a more impactful allocation of available resources.

The map provides an overview of the available disease protection management options for oat production in Sweden and will be a useful tool for field-based advisors to provide scientific-based plant protection strategies for farmers.

In addition, collaboration among farmers, advisors, and researchers is crucial for knowledge transfer and the development of relevant research questions and scientific insights to be applied in practice.

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and in its supplementary files.

Ma B-L, Zheng Z, Ren C. Chapter 6—Oat. In: Sadras VO, Calderini DF, editors. Crop physiology case histories for major crops. Cambridge: Academic Press; Chapter Google Scholar. Murphy JP, Hoffman LA. The origin, history, and production of oat.

In: Marshall HG, Sorrells ME, editors. Oat science and technology. Madison: American Society of Agronomy; Google Scholar. Zwer PK. In: Wrigley C, editor. Encyclopedia of grain science.

Oxford: Elsevier; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: FAOSTAT statistical database. Accessed 21 Jan Stewart D, McDougall G. Oat agriculture, cultivation and breeding targets: implications for human nutrition and health.

Br J Nutr. Article Google Scholar. Hoffman LA. World production and use of oats. In: Welch RW, editor. The oat crop: production and utilization. Dordrecht: Springer; Marshall A, Cowan S, Edwards S, Griffiths I, Howarth C, Langdon T, et al.

Crops that feed the world 9. Oats—a cereal crop for human and livestock feed with industrial applications.

Food Secur. Rasane P, Jha A, Sabikhi L, Kumar A, Unnikrishnan VS. Nutritional advantages of oats and opportunities for its processing as value added foods—a review. J Food Sci Technol.

Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar. Bowen KL, Hagan AK, Pegues M, Jones J. Yield losses due to crown rust in winter oats in Alabama. Plant Health Prog. Cabral AL, Gnanesh BN, Fetch JM, McCartney C, Fetch T, Park RF, et al. Oat fungal diseases and the application of molecular marker technology for their control.

In: Goyal A, Manoharachary C, editors. New York: Springer; McCallum BD, Fetch T, Chong J. Cereal rust control in Canada. Aust J Agric Res. Berlin A, Källström HN, Lindgren A, Olson Å. Scientific evidence for sustainable plant disease protection strategies for the main arable crops in Sweden.

A systematic map protocol. Environ Evid. Kottek M, Grieser J, Beck C, Rudolf B, Rubel F. World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated. Meteorol Z. Collaboration for Environmental Evidence. In: Pullin A, Frampton G, Livoreil B, Petrokofsky G, editors. Guidelines and standards for evidence synthesis in environmental management, Version Haddaway NR, Macura B, Whaley P, Pullin AS.

ROSES for systematic map reports version 1. Adams D. Publish or perish on macOS. Accessed 15 July Viera AJ, Garrett JM. Understanding interobserver agreement: the kappa statistic. Fam Med. PubMed Google Scholar. Karlsson I, Persson P, Friberg H. Fusarium head blight from a microbiome perspective.

Front Microbiol. Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar. Brussels: The Commission of the European Communities. Accessed 20 Mar Šliková S, Šrobárová A, Šudyová V, Polišenská I, Gregová E, Mihálik D. Response of oat cultivars to Fusarium infection with a view to their suitability for food use.

Hysing S-C, Wiik L. Fusarium seedling blight of wheat and oats: effects of infection level and fungicide seed treatments on agronomic characters. Acta Agric Scand B Soil Plant Sci. CAS Google Scholar. Yan W, Pageau D, Martin R, Cummiskey A, Blackwell B.

Is deoxynivalenol contamination a serious problem for oat in Eastern Canada? Crop Sci. Article CAS Google Scholar. Šebesta J, Zwatz B, Roderick HW, Corazza L, Starzyk MH, Reitan L, et al. Incidence of Pyrenophora avenae Ito et Kurib. In Europe between —, and the varietal reaction of oats to it.

Plant Prot Sci. Garrett KA, Nita M, De Wolf ED, Esker PD, Gomez-Montano L, Sparks AH. Chapter 24—Plant pathogens as indicators of climate change. In: Letcher TM, editor. Climate change. Amsterdam: Elsevier; Bernhoft A, Torp M, Clasen PE, Loes AK, Kristoffersen AB.

Influence of agronomic and climatic factors on Fusarium infestation and mycotoxin contamination of cereals in Norway. Food Addit Contam Part a Chem Anal Control Expos Risk Assess.

Mourtzinis S, Conley SP, Gaska JM. Agronomic management and fungicide effects on oat yield and quality. Van de Wouw AP, Idnurm A. Biotechnological potential of engineering pathogen effector proteins for use in plant disease management. Biotechnol Adv.

Article PubMed Google Scholar. May WE, Ames N, Irvine RB, Kutcher HR, Lafond GP, Shirtliffe SJ. Are fungicide applications to control crown rust of oat beneficial?

Can J Plant Sci. Download references. Open access funding provided by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box , 07, Uppsala, Sweden.

Rural Economy and Agricultural Society HS Konsult AB, Gamla vägen 5G, 27, Örebro, Sweden. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. AB and ÅO planned the project. Let's do a do-over on this year. This is where bringing in the mill as a partner was critical to making farmers comfortable dipping their toes in a new crop.

Oats are a unique crop when it comes to food production. Making these grades depends a lot on the weather during the growing season. It also hinges on tricks of the trade only learned by growing oats for a few seasons and knowing when to plant, when to spray with fungicide, when to water, etc.

He is up to about acres of oats on his total land of about acres. Adding oats to a farms rotation isn't that simple but can have great benefits.

According to English and Kunen, just having more biodiversity on farms brings great ecological benefits. By lengthening the crop rotation period, you can break pest cycles, ease planting and harvesting pressures by having more staggered seasons throughout the year.

That often results in better soil health, meaning farmers can use less fertilizer. Beyond those general benefits, oats are a particularly good crop for soil health and water quality, according to Larson. According to Larson, if you grow corn crop after corn crop, groundwater below the rooting zone of corn will contain nitrate levels over twice the drinking water standard.

Larson has seen this firsthand with a shallow well on his farm. The water dropped from 12 parts per million ppm of nitrates to under 3.

Oatly wants farmers to plant more oats. By Jesse Klein January 27, Oat color is an important consideration and it is advisable to talk to potential buyers whether they prefer yellow or white oats. The second quality factor is test weight and although varieties differ some for test weight, the most important step to maintain test weight is select a variety that matures early enough to escape heat stress during grainfill.

Another selection criterion for variety selection is the level of resistance of the variety to crown rust Puccinia coronate Corda var. avenae W. Fraser Ledingham. Crown rust is the most widespread and damaging disease of oat.

Epidemics of crown rust are common in the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota, in part because the alternate host common buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica L. is commonly found in woodlands and windbreaks. Only select varieties with the best resistance ratings to crown rust to avoid total crop failures.

Consult the field crop trials , published annually by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, for resistance ratings. Only use seed from registered and certified seed classes of known varieties. Certified seed must be sold with an accompanying blue tag that lists the variety name germination, weed seed, and inert matter percentage; seed lot number; and source of production.

Avoid seed sold as VNS variety not stated because the seed could be a varietal mixture, an unknown variety, old seed that did not sell well, or a disease-susceptible variety. Oat should be planted as early as possible to maximize yield and test weight.

Grain yields decrease an estimated percent per day when planting past the optimum planting dates as the odds of heat stress later in the growing season will increase.

Unlike corn and soybean where organic producers often use delayed planting as a strategy for weed management, organic small grains should be at the same time in early spring as conventional small grains. Optimal plant populations are important to maximize grain yields. An initial stand of 28 plants per square foot or 1.

Plant populations below optimum can result in. Seeding rates should be adjusted by about 40, plants per acre per week of delay and up to 1. This will compensate for reduced yields that occur due to reduced tillering in late plantings.

Oat can be underseeded with red clover or alfalfa. Red clover tends to be less competitive with oat and is more easily terminated, while alfalfa can be used as an acceptable alternative.

Red clover can be underseeded at six to ten pounds per acre, while alfalfa can be underseeded at eight to ten pounds per acre. Underseeding these legumes is an excellent, low-risk way to incorporate green manures into an organic crop rotation. The SWROC at Lamberton, MN has been conducting replicated field trials on certified organic ground since to provide Minnesota organic growers with data to maximize crop profitability and production of organic oat.

The best N rate used varied by variety and year. Soybean can provide a significant amount of N for the crop planted after soybean harvest regardless of whether a crop is conventionally or organically grown.

Seeding rate is the next most important consideration after nutrient management in oat production. Seeding rate is based on the number of bushels of seed per acre to be planted. In trials conducted at the SWROC it was observed that organic oat yield as function of seeding rate was very consistent among the varieties used, though it varied by year.

USDA — What is Organic Agriculture? Paulo Pagliari, Extension nutrient management specialist and Jochum Wiersma, Extension small grains specialist. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

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Home Crop production Small grains Small grains crop and variety selection Organic oat production. Quick facts Oat is a viable cash crop that also helps manage the weed seed bank.