The University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan, has released a new white hull oat variety called MN-Pearl.

MN-Pearl is a high-yielding variety with good straw strength and high groat percentage, according to breeders. It also has good overall disease resistance, including moderate crown rust resistance and excellent smut resistance.

“In state trials, MN-Pearl established itself as a late-maturing, high-yielding variety with good overall disease resistance,” according to Kevin Smith, U-M oat breeder, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. “In particular, MN-Pearl has excellent smut resistance, thus continuing the university’s tradition of releasing oat varieties that do not require chemical seed treatment to protect them from this disease.”

OVERALL GOOD PERFOMER: Kevin Smith, U-M oat and barley breeder, says in state research trials that MN-Pearl established itself as a late-maturing, high-yielding variety with good overall disease resistance.

The new variety was bred as part of the collaborative oat-evaluation program established by longtime U-M oat breeder Deon Stuthman, who retired in 2009, and Brian Rossnagel, who led the oat and barley breeding program at the Crop Development Centre in Saskatchewan until his retirement in 2011. For many years, the two programs exchanged and evaluated breeding lines with a simple handshake between the breeders as an agreement to share in the release of any varieties arising from those exchanges.

"MN-Pearl is the result of good old-fashioned plant breeder collaboration via simple germplasm exchange and sharing,” Rossnagel says. "I am very pleased that our two institutions have, with the ongoing assistance of our colleague Howard Rines, honored that handshake between Stuthman and myself as we were not only colleagues but good friends. Let's hope that MN-Pearl serves oat growers as well as our collaboration has."

Jochum Wiersma, U-M Extension agronomist and professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, notes that MN-Pearl is a white-seed version of another popular oat variety, U-M’s 2012 release Deon.

WHITE SEED: Jochum Wiersma, U-M Extension agronomist, says MN-Pearl is a white-seed version of another popular oat variety, U-M’s 2012 release Deon.

“Growers should expect similar maturity, protein, yield and disease resistance from this new option,” Wiersma said.

MN-Pearl joins Deon as a variety offering a good combination of characteristics that performs well across the upper Midwest. The new variety’s name reflects its pearly-white hull, a trait that is often sought after by millers.

MN-Pearl seed will be distributed through Minnesota Crop Improvement Association members for planting in spring 2020. A list of certified seed producers will be available in September at mncia.org. Interested buyers can also contact MCIA at 1-800-510-6242.

More detailed performance data and comparisons of previously released oat varieties is available on the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station website.

Prior to being formally named, MN-Pearl was tested as MN11211.

MN-Pearl plantings can be previewed July 17 during Crops and Soils Day at the University’s Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston. The North Farm is located 1 mile north of the U-M Crookston campus on Highway 75 N. A complimentary lunch will be served.

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