Output 1

By March 2027 an agronomy package for milling oats in the Esperance Port Zone will be developed utilising small plot trials, farmer machinery scale trials and farmer case studies

Integrating milling oats into the farming system as a niche crop used strategically where conditions may be better suited to oats, or not ideal for more commonly grown cereals such as barley and wheat should be the main focus of this investment. Situations such as deeper early sowing to take advantage of early moisture, seeding oats early for frost risk mitigation in lower lying frost prone areas of the landscape and the potential use of milling oats in areas of paddocks or farms that suffer from transient waterlogging in season need investigation.

The proposed investment would utilise both small plot trials, larger paddock scale trial strips and case studies to investigate several agronomic options such as:

• Frost risk mitigation compared to barley and wheat.
• Time of sowing opportunities compared to barley and wheat and the effect this has on grain yields and grain weight.
• Seeding depth- seeding deeper to take advantage of moisture at depth
• Seeding rates
• Disease management options
• Pre-emergent weed control options
• Harvest timing to prevent shedding
• Nutritional requirements compared to wheat and barley- particularly N
• Agronomic levers to pull to ensure grain weight and quality is maintained for the milling market.
• Header set up for effective harvesting of oats as well as on farm storage options that may increase grain weight before delivery should also be explored.

Output 2

By March 2027 market access options and on farm economics for milling oats in the Esperance port zone will be explored and delivered to growers.

Currently Esperance does not have a bulk delivery option for milling oats. The requirements for CBH to provide a milling oats segregation should be explored. Other market access options from Esperance port should also be explored as well as the economics and benefits from storing on farm.

An economic analysis of integrating milling oats into the farming system compared to current practices of growing wheat, feed barley and malt barley  will also need to be provided to inform growers.

Output 3

By March 2027 extension of project results delivered to growers in the Esperance Port Zone

• Extend results and observations to farmer groups in the Esperance Port Zone across the life of the project.
• Provide a final technical report to GRDC.
• Provision of one Ground Cover article
• Provide an Oats Agronomy for the Esperance region resource (booklet, web based etc.) encompassing the agronomy and, economics and marketing options explored as a part of this project.