A method for identifying oat varieties with improved resistance to oat crown rust from a series of field trials

Oat crown rust is a fungal disease caused by pathogen Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae. Crown rust reduces oat yield and causes thin kernels with low weight. In Polish trials on spring oat one of the compulsory observed characteristics is resistance to oat crown rust. In the present work, the generalized linear mixed model with several variance components is applied to model the resistance to oat crown rust in series of oat trials. The answer to the question which oat varieties tested in two consecutive years 2009 and 2010 in Polish post registration trial system are the best in terms of resistance to crown rust was searched for.