“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, crews are jumpin’, and the oats are ripe….”  Or something to that effect (1).  For those of you for whom it is summer, I hope that you are enjoying some time off as well as having a great field season!

It would be wonderful to hear how everyone has been doing in the field.  What have conditions been like for you?  How are your lines performing?  Did you host a field tour?  Many of the research reports in the Oat Newsletter archives are summaries of what happened in the field.

In this update to the newsletter, we have a report from Beth Armour and Tracy Perry of Cream Hill Estates concerning the labelling of “gluten-free” oats in Canada.  It can be found in the “Research Reports” section.  In the “Community News” section, we have a press release from Grain Farmers of Ontario, who now represent oat farmers in Ontario.  An update concerning the Oats2020 meeting in Birmingham, UK, this fall is there as well.

One of the features of the on-line version of the newsletter is the “Additional Links” section.  This has also been updated, but is still incomplete.  Please let us know of other links that should be added!

I found many of the additional links via our Twitter feed (@OatNewsletter – the live feed is at the bottom of the home page).  It’s been quite an education finding and reading tweets from different companies, research organizations, and farmers involved in oat production and use around the world.  I’m also hoping that our followers can learn something from us.  If you have a photo, short statement (up to140 characters), or web link to share, please send a note to curator@oatnews.org and I will tweet the information to our followers.

Thank you all!

(1) with apologies to George Gershwin, who wrote the song “Summertime”.