... your place for oat information.

This year has brought much change, and that includes some sad news. Ken Armstrong, a scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa for 35 years, passed away a few weeks ago. Ken’s speciality was cytogenetics, and, among other things, he was a part of the infamous Quaker Oats Consortium in the 1990s. You can read more about Ken’s legacy in his obituary, which has been added to the “Hall of Fame” section in the newsletter.

Happy 2025! It’s time to open another volume of "Research Reports". In volume 61, we had eight articles, as well as links to the recording from one "Speaking of Oats" webinar and links to the abstracts from the 2024 American Oat Workers' Conference (AOWC). Please send your submissions for volume 62 to oatnewsletter@gmail.com.

"...is some black oat groats", or so the song goes (not really). Alexander Rybalka, from Ukraine, is seeking oats with back caryopses. Not black hulls; black caryopses (groats). If you know of any, please get in touch with him. Details are in this article.

Happy World Porridge Day! The tenth of October was designated World Porridge Day to celebrate the wonders of oatmeal and help raise funds for the charity Mary's Meals.

That applies to the season here in Canada, but also to the members of the committees (including the Oat Newsletter committee) overseen by the American Oat Workers (AOW) group! The 2024 American Oat Workers' Conference (AOWC) was held in Saskatoon, SK, Canada, in July, and there is a lot of information to share. First, though, I will let you know that I was re-elected Editor of the Oat Newsletter for another four years.

…and “nothing so gentle as real strength”. Those words, from St. Francis de Sales, could certainly be used to describe Howard Rines, who passed away after a long illness on May 23rd. Howard is another of those people I met through being a part of the Quaker Oats Consortium in the 1990’s. He was a lovely man, and an excellent scientist. He will be sorely missed by many.

It's back! We're resurrecting the “Speaking of Oats...” (“SOO...”) webinar series this month. Duong Nguyen, from CSIRO, will speak to us about “Leveraging molecular tools and data integration to solve the oat crown rust puzzle” on May 15th at 4:30 pm (16:30) EDT (UTC-4). The time is unusual because Duong is in Adelaide, Australia. Registration is now open! Check the time offset for your location here.

Well, I failed the challenge of posting part 2 of this update a week after I posted part 1, but the upside is that you get lots of other information sooner!

As Oat Newsletter editor, I collect information from multiple sources and disseminate it to the community primarily through Oat Newsletter updates/emails, OatMail, and ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter). The biggest challenge for me comes in how to package that information and get it out to you in a timely manner. As the old saying goes, “it never rains, it pours”, and so this update is in two parts!

This is the beginning of a new year, and there’s a new volume of "Research Reports" for 2024 – number 61. Four articles have already been added to this volume.