Agronomic performance and quality of oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes of worldwide origin produced under Central European growing conditions

One hundred and twenty oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes of worldwide origin were evaluated for agronomic and grain quality characters in three replicated field experiments in Austria and one in Germany. Panicle emergence, plant height and lodging severity were evaluated under field conditions, and grain yield, thousand kernel weight, hectolitre weight, screenings percentage > 2 mm, and groat percentage were measured after harvesting. Substantial genetic variation and high heritability were observed for all traits. The highest yielding entries were improved cultivars from European breeding programs. Groat yield and grain yield were highly correlated. For agronomic traits such as earliness and plant height, and quality traits such as groat percentage, several of the overseas genotypes, mostly from the USA and Canada, showed better performance than the European cultivars. Selected lines from the North American breeding programs appear to be valuable resources for European oat breeding programs, especially for the improvement of physical grain quality traits.