FIELD TRIALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26822, 13 July 1948, Page 6

FIELD TRIALS

NEW OAT VARIETIES OTAGO AND SOUTHAND SOME INTERESTING RESULTS Some interesting trials with new varieties of oats have been conducted in Central Otago and Southland by the Department of Agriculture,' and some comments on the results were obtained by the Daily Times from the department yesterday. The S 17 variety, a selection produced by the Agronomy Division of the department from a cross of Gartons Abundance and Ruakura, was tried in Central Otago at Tarras and Chatto Creek. From the results of the trial at Tarras it would appear that this variety has a definite place either for chaff or milling, when compared with the Onward variety. At Chatto Creek, S 17 was better than Onward in vigour and density, but Onward was some nine inches taller in growth, although the chaff yield of S 17 was half a ton an acre greater than Onward. Reml ,< - moved that this new variety was worthy of further trials in these areas. In Souunana, resistance-to-lodging trials conducted by the department included the new variety of oats. S 172 which was bred at Aberystwyth, in Wales, as a special oat resistant to lodging. This particular variety did not lodge at a’l in the trial- in Southland, but all the other varieties lodged to varying degrees. This performance of S 172 rankeu it as o ni omy-pionus-ing variety where conditions of heavy lodging were apt to occur. Its yield in the Southland trials was satisfactory and it reached a height of approximately three feet. In the Southland trial, it was also found that different rates of seeding had little effect on lodging, the seeding being reduced from four bushels to two bushels and a-half an acre. The use of *he Holland coulters had very little effect on lodging in the Southland trials. The Holland, a newtype of coulter, more or less has the effect of broadcasting the s~"d am manure.