InterGrain oat breeder Allan Rattey (right) and Melchiorre Seeds Jason Melchiorre (left) standing in a Goldie paddock in Narrogin, WA in September 2023. Source: InterGrain

INTERGRAIN has announced the release of Goldie, a new milling-oat variety developed under the National Oat Breeding Program.

Goldie is suited to all oat-growing regions of southern New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

With the recent receival of milling accreditation by Grains Australia’s Oat Variety Classification Committee, and promising hay quality data, Goldie is set to become a staple variety for oat growers across Australia.

Formerly known as breeding code 13008-18, Goldie is a mid spring-maturing oat and is the highest-yielding variety available, offering a yield improvement over widely grown grain options such as Bannister, Williams, and Bilby.

Goldie also offers a strong improvement for grain-quality receival standards, with good test weight and low screenings.

InterGrain oat breeder Allan Rattey said Goldie stood out as a potential winner right from the beginning when InterGrain took over the NOBP in 2021.

“We have watched this line out-perform others in NVT across three seasons, showing Goldie’s versatility over a broad range of environments,” Dr Rattey said.

“Goldie provides growers a yield improvement of 4pc over Bannister, 8pc over Williams and 10pc over Bilby across all oat-growing regions from WA across to southern NSW.

“Goldie is the first milling-oat variety that InterGrain has released since taking over the National Oat Breeding Program.

“We fast-tracked Goldie in late 2021 to provide the industry a high-yielding variety as quickly as possible.

“Along with excellent grain yields and quality attributes, early hay yield and quality data looks promising for export hay. More data will be collected over the 2024 season.

“Goldie is a mid-maturity, and is well suited for the second week of April to mid-May sowing window.

“Goldie has excellent panicle emergence and flowers approximately 4-7 days earlier than Bannister.

“It has a medium-tall plant height, similar to Williams and is approximately 5cm taller than Bannister.

“Goldie’s disease resistance profile is similar to Bannister with Septoria rated moderately susceptible- susceptible and moderately resistant to CCN.

“InterGrain has deployed a novel oats seed purification system that has greatly reduced the frequency of other cereal crops in seed lots that are commercially available to growers in 2024.”

The variety has been added to the oat master list and can be delivered as a milling oat at harvest 2024.

Goldie’s classification was made by Grains Australia’s Oat Variety Classification Committee, under Grains Australia’s national oat variety classification framework.

Dr Rattey said Goldie was bred in 2013 and selected in early generadtion stages by Pamela Zwer and the NOBP team led by the South Australian Research and Development Institute.

With Dr Zwer’s advice, InterGrain entered Goldie into NVT in 2021.

In 2022, Goldie was also entered into InterGrains’ fully fledged hay program and NHA with AgriFutures.

“We are thrilled to be able to release Goldie after many years of work by Pamela and the NOBP team,” Dr Rattey said.

“We acknowledge the breeding efforts and contribution to the oat industry made by Pamela and the NOPB team for 25 years before we began leading the National oat grain and oaten hay breeding programs.”

Goldie seed is very limited for 2024.

Orders for Goldie can be placed for 2025 through local resellers and Seedclub members.

Source: Intergrain