'Hi-early', Early Heading and Harvestable Winter Forage Oats Cultivar

Oats (Avena sativa L.), which are known as one of the forage crops of Korea, have good livestock palatability and are popular to cattle farmers because of their high dry matter. However, the cultivation of double cropping in the rice field was reluctant due to the late maturing for farmers to plant rice continuously. 'Hi-early', a winter oats for forage use, was developed by the breeding team at National Institute of Crop Science, RDA in 2016. It was derived from a cross between '517A2-121'(IT133383) and 'CI7604' (IT133379). Subsequent generations followed by the cross were handled in bulk and pedigree selection programs at Suwon, Iksan and Jeonju, respectively. After preliminary and advance yield test for 2 years, 'SO2004015-B-B-23-1-3-7', designated as a line name of 'Gwiri92', were subsequently evaluated for earliness and forage yield during 3 years in four parts such as Jeju (upland), Yesan (upland), Iksan (upland), and Jeonju (paddy), from 2014 to 2016, and finally named as 'Hi-early'. Cultivar 'Hi-early' has the characteristics of medium leaves of green color, thick diameter culm, and medium grain of brown color. Over 3 years, the heading date of 'Hi-early' was about 9 days earlier than that of check cultivar 'Samhan' (April 26 and May 5, respectively). Average forage fresh yield of 'Hi-early' harvested at milk-ripe stage was similar to check cultivar (40.2 tone ha-1 and 40.0 tone ha-1, respectively), and dry matter yield also was similar to check cultivar (14.2 tone ha-1 and 14.0 tone ha-1, respectively). Cultivar 'Hi-early' was lower than the check cultivar 'Samhan' in terms of the protein content (6.2% and 7.0%, respectively) and total digestible nutrients (61.0%, and 62.5%, respectively), while the TDN yield was more than the check (7.91 tone ha-1 and 7.64 tone ha-1, respectively). Fall sowing cropping of 'Hi-early' is recommended only in areas where average daily minimum mean temperatures in January are higher than -6℃, and it should not be cultivated in mountain areas, where frost damage is likely to occur.