Happy 2019 everyone! I have a couple of items to finish off 2018: the Web harvest for December is in the “Community News” section, and a summary concerning oat cultivars released in Canada in 2018 is in the “Research Reports” section. I would like to see summaries concerning new cultivars released in other countries as well. Are there some of you who would be willing to put those together, please? As always, any new research or other reports can be sent to me at curator@oatnews.org.

There are always a lot of events this time of year, and Plant and Animal Genome XXVII (PAGXXVII) was held a couple of weeks ago in San Diego. As usual, there was an oat genomics workshop, and you can find links to the presentation abstracts here.

Please check the events listing below and the calendar to find other upcoming events. One of particular interest might be the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) conference call on February 1st. Melanie Caffe-Treml will be speaking about how variety trial information can be used to help producers decide which oat varieties to grow.

In terms of upcoming celebrations, many Scots and those of Scottish descent will be enjoying a Burns Supper this Friday, the 25th. If you’re not familiar with this tradition (and how oats play a role!), you can read all about it here.

Chinese New Year is also right around the corner, on February 5th. Changzhong Ren made a Chinese version of the "Avena" song that I presented to you in December, so it seems fitting to present that to you now (it’s in the “Community News” section). Since this will be the “Year of the Pig”, it also seems fitting to remind you that oats can be used as pig feed, as described in this monograph by Vern Burrows (found in the “Historical Documents” section). Enjoy!