... your place for oat information.

Unfortunately, this update brings a double dose of sad news. First, Harold Marshall passed away on April 27th, 2019. Harold was the oat breeder at Pennsylvania State U. for many years, and continued to develop new oat lines at his farm after retirement. Then, Marty Carson passed away on May 9th. Marty was a plant pathologist, and did much work on crown rust during his tenure as Research Leader at the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, MN.

I left off in January by mentioning some of Vern Burrows’ work. Well, in the past year, Vern has been recognized for his work three more times! Most recently, he was promoted within the Order of Canada. You can read about these recent awards in the “Hall of Fame” section under “Other Awards and Accolades”, or go directly here.

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?

I have one thing for you today – my very best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Oh – and this little music video about oat species in the “Community News” section.

Pax vobis omnibus!

...is a question I've been asked many times at banquets and so on, and it seems appropriate now. There are two new reports in the “Research Reports” section, both translated from German. One presents data concerning the mixed-feed market, and the other discusses adding oats to chicken feed to prevent feather picking. Note that research reports will now be identified on the reports pages as being translations, summaries, or original work.

A number of new events are now listed below and on the calendar, including PAG XXVII and several Prairie Oat Grower Association (POGA)-related AGMs. Today (November 2nd) is the LAST DAY for early-bird registration for PAG. Register by 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -7) to get the best rates!

As has been the trend lately, a new position has become available! The USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul, MN, is looking for a Biologist. Details are here, and the closing date is Oct. 16th.

Over at Oat Global, Will Zorrilla was the successful candidate for the position of Associate Director. Congratulations, Will, and welcome to the community!

A new job opportunity has opened up with the GrainGenes team in Albany, California. They are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate with experience in computational biology (as it relates to plant genomics). The details can be found here. Taner Sen, GrainGenes team lead, sent out the information via OatMail and via the GrainGenes mail list, which you may find useful as well.

Now you have even more ways to connect to the oat research world! “OatMail” is an e-mail forum for discussion and announcements of specific interest to the broader oat research community. Belonging to the OatMail group is different than being on the Oat Newsletter subscriber list. There is more information about both the OatMail and Oat Newsletter lists under the “About” tab, along with instructions for how to subscribe.

This update brings more sad news, unfortunately. Darrell Wesenberg, former oat and barley breeder at USDA-ARS in Aberdeen, ID, passed away on July 30th, 2018. His obituary is in the “Hall of Fame” section (the direct link is here). Darrell is also in the Hall of Fame for having received the "Award for Distinguished Service to Oat Improvement" in 1998.