Australia
March 5, 2026
Research in southern New South Wales is refining the management needed to grow high-quality, high-yielding milling oats.
Growers and agronomists from southern New South Wales had their first look at small-plot oat trials at Brill Ag’s annual agronomy field walk north of Ganmain, NSW, last year.
Brill Ag Agronomist Rohan Brill told those gathered at a paddock walk in late September about in a 2-year GRDC National Grower Network project, ‘NGN milling oats agronomy for southern NSW’.
“There is another trial site at Marrar that is exploring the effect of different sowing dates and nitrogen management on yield and quality,” Mr Brill said.
While new oat varieties were higher yielding, he explained that unknowns remained.
These included:
- the optimal agronomy package for southern NSW
- the capacity of new oats to ‘hang on’ in a tight finish
- the optimal disease package to protect yields.
North of Ganmain, Mr Brill said growers were keen to see oats sown in late April. However, with a dry start in 2025, dry sowing was undertaken on 9 May.
This will be compared with plots sown approximately 5 days after rainfall on 29 May. The oats sown at Marrar germinated in late April and will be compared with those sown at the same location in mid-May.
Twelve oat varieties are being assessed for yield and quality. These include commonly grown varieties and those yet to be released by plant breeding companies.
Also included is an experiment comparing the frost-tolerance of oats with that of wheat and barley. Included are the quicker-developing oat Goldie and the slower-developing oat Koala. These will be compared with the slow-developing wheat Leverage and the quicker-developing wheat Calibre.
Also included in the experiment are the mid-to-slow-developing barley Neo and quick-to-mid-developing barley Maximus.
Another experiment is examining the effects of different nitrogen rates on the yield and quality of 6 oat varieties.
A fungicide trial will compare the yield gap of oats when they are protected against disease with that of oats when no protection is provided.
A 2-year GRDC National Grower Network project, 'NGN milling oats agronomy for southern NSW', is assessing 12 oat varieties for yield and quality. Photo: Arthur Mostead
Frost tolerance
Special guest Garren Knell, a consultant from ConsultAg in Narrogin, WA, spoke about how many WA growers plant oats due to their tolerance to spring frosts.
He said WA growers aimed to establish oats in late April, taking advantage of subsoil moisture without increasing the frost risk.
“If you can get the oats up in April, they are more competitive against annual ryegrass.”
Mr Knell said frost turned some spikes white, but there was always grain above and below the damage. “We never see a wipeout from frost like we see in wheat.”
Regarding vegetative (earlier) frosts, he said oats were sensitive. These can knock off tillers.
Other benefits of oats, he noted, were that they:
- can be sown deeper than other cereals to use subsoil moisture and improve herbicide tolerance
- tend not to harbour wheat and barley root diseases
- are the most waterlogging-tolerant of the cereals
- are tolerant of acid soils.
One downside of oats, he said, was that they did not like drought conditions. “The best way to overcome drought is to plant early,” Mr Knell said.
In WA, oats are often grown after canola or pulses. Nonetheless, he said, oats did not need much nitrogen.
Mr Knell said grain buyers did not like barley or wheat mixed with oats. To keep samples free of wheat and barley, he advised avoiding sowing a cereal followed by oats.
If you push sowing into May to avoid frost damage, aim to put the oats onto a canola stubble that has been kept free of weeds during summer and autumn.
He advised sowing oats on paddocks with higher elevations in late April and holding off on sowing oats until May for lower-lying paddocks.
“In most situations, the yield benefits from sowing oats early will outweigh the risk of vegetative frost damage,” Mr Knell said.
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