Investment

Oat is presently priced through feed market mechanisms, however, for the first time, international demand for human consumption has surpassed feed demand. Oat is a highly commoditised grain within a relatively small industry with little diversification in end use, and hence under-developed quality requirements. Compared with wheat and barley, oat has a high oil content, and this is a well-recognised constraint to milling yields. Processors currently take delivery of mixed oat varieties with a range of quality traits including oil content. There has been increased interest in the development of plant based dairy and meat alternatives, and this has opened the door to end uses outside of the traditional breakfast food market, an excellent example being oat milk. Improvement to processing efficiency through reduction of oil content in grain has the potential to create further opportunities for innovative food product development and in doing so, improve the value at the farm gate.

Under Program 3 of the Oat Grain Quality Consortium, we will gain an understanding of the:

• impact of seasonal variation on grain oil content
• threshold for oat oil % to improve milling and processing (fractionation) efficiencies
• genetics and biological mechanisms behind variation in oat oil content and genetic mechanisms to modulate oil content to desired levels

SARDI will work in partnership with the milling industry and food processors to establish industry-relevant oil thresholds. Through partnership with The University of Adelaide and engagement of The University of South Australia, cutting edge technologies will be deployed to deliver novel insights into the biological mechanisms behind variation in oat oil.

Through alignment with Programs 1 and 2 of the Oat Grain Quality Consortium (OGQC) and Grains Australia Limited, research outcomes will contribute to establishment of oat quality standards. SARDI will leverage in-house capacity in oat quality and existing and novel genetic resources to identify low-oil germplasm. This germplasm will be provided to current and future oat breeding programs to rapidly achieve low oil oat to underpin new end uses.