A proportion of the country’s winter-sown spring oat crops has been damaged as a result of the cold, harsh spring weather. Affected crops have two crops in one – a very short, damaged crop and a proportion of stems that were not affected and are now at normal crop height for the time of year.

The cause of the damage seems to be a consequence of low temperatures, the use of growth regulators and the development stage of individual plant stems.

This relationship resulted in many fields not being affected at all, while others suffered substantial damage.

Even within fields, some areas escaped, while others suffered badly.

Areas that suffered damage have excessively stunted and abnormal stems.

Many of these stems and tillers have already died, with many others dying. These stems, which could be most of a field, are now heading out at about 25cm in height, but the heads will be very small and are also likely to be poorly filled. A big yield and quality hit seems inevitable.

Causes

It would appear that the continuous cold, which might or might not be influenced by frost, resulted in excessive growth regulation that impeded the growth of leaves, which prevented stem extension and the normal emergence of new leaves and ears.

This effectively strangled many stems, causing them to die, while the excessive regulation of stem growth resulted in extremely short internodes and plants.

These damaged stems were then subject to a range of secondary diseases, which are likely to further aggravate the consequences of this problem.