It’s important to plan out your season when selecting oat varieties for your operation. Busch Grains has created both US and Canada Recommended Oat Variety Guides. These guides highlight geographical areas where certain oat varieties have exhibited their highest potential to meet oat milling standards. This can be a great tool to help narrow down varieties to consider.

• The Western Canada guide can be located here.
• The US guide can be located here.

Step 2: Disease Resistance

Diseases can cause catastrophic crop loss at multiple points during the growing season. This can be mitigated if disease resistance is considered in management decisions at season planning. A level of resistance to these diseases is important, as it may reduce the need for a fungicide application during the season. Resistance to these diseases is especially important in organic production systems, where fungicide application is prohibited. Many of the varieties available today offer strong disease resistance packages with varying levels of resistance to oats’ major diseases:

1. Rusts: Crown rust is one of the most prominent diseases for oats, partly due to the fact that there are multiple species of the disease that can infect oat plants. Thankfully, there are multiple varieties on the market that have an assortment of resistance genes to provide a level of resistance to crown rust on oats, such as ORe3542M (Canada) & Rushmore (US), increasing tolerance against different strains that may be prevalent in different years. If you are in an area with a history of rust infections, it is best practice to choose a variety rated at least “Moderately Resistant” for crown rust.
2. Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus: BYDV is a virus vectored by aphids and is transferred to oats during times when aphids are feeding. This disease is identifiable by leaves that typically turn a prominent red orange color. Since it is a virus, there is no fungicide option for control. If you are in a wetter area and often have aphid issues that lead to BYDV presence in your oats, select oat varieties that carry a genetic resistance to BYDV; AAC Wesley (Canada) & Rockford (US) are varieties with resistance.

Step 3: Management Considerations

It is important to identify your farms’ typical application of practices, management limitations, and goals for overall use of the land you intend to grow your oats on when selecting which variety to grow. Some key considerations include:

1. Planting timing: Time is your friend, and planting early, in conjunction with a shorter-season variety like AAC Douglas (Canada) or Reins (US), can further assist in creating a larger window of opportunity to add management practices such as a cover crop for grazing following harvest. Planting early could also allow you to use a longer season variety, like CDC Byer (Canada) or MN Pearl (US), that could have higher yield potential if your growing season allows. If you usually seed oats following other crops in your rotation (not first), choosing a shorter season variety may also help ensure that the oats will be ready to harvest in a timely manner come fall.
2. Straight cutting vs Swathing: Want to straight cut your crop? Pick a variety that is shorter in stature, such as CDC Anson (Canada) or Sumo (US), that still produces good yields with less stem biomass to worry about drying down during harvest. Your farm swaths all of the oat acres? Lean towards a variety with enough height to cut, and a good lodging rating, like CDC Endure (Canada) or Rushmore (US) to mitigate the risk of the crop falling over prior to swathing.
3. Yield targets: Each year, regional variety trials are executed to identify the best-performing and highest-yielding varieties. After examining other necessary characteristics on your checklist that you would need in a variety, compare the ones that fall within your needs to how well they yielded for your particular growing area. Varieties will perform differently in various geographic locations, so it is helpful to reference pre-existing data for your region.

Step 4: Post-harvest Considerations

When selecting oat varieties for fields across your operation, you will want to consider your intentions for each field following harvest:

1. Baling straw: Consider planting a variety that is taller in stature and produces more stem biomass, such as CDC Arborg (Canada) or MN Pearl (US), if you intend to bale straw following the crop.
2. Cover crop or field management:  Look into a shorter season variety to allow for ample time to complete the project or establish a cover crop, like AAC Wesley (Canada), Reins or Sumo (US).
3. Underseeding: When looking to plant an underseeded crop, consider the impact that varying varieties may have on this and the impact this may have on seeding rates. Oat varieties that exhibit more vertical plant structure, such as CS Camden (Canada) or Rushmore (US), may lend themselves nicely to this type of field management while still maintaining some weed suppression and the opportunity to meet milling standards.

Additional Resources

Planning, selecting, and seeding a resilient oat variety for your area is a pivotal decision in a successful cropping season. There are many resources available to learn more about oat production outside of the Grain Miller Oat Production Booklet linked above.

• You can check out resources such as POGA’s Oat Grower Manual for more information on oat production.
• To learn more about specific varietal characteristics consult varietal information from sources such as Practical Farmers of Iowa Oat Variety Trial Results in the US or the Saskatchewan Seed Guide in Canada for example.
• Seed dealers will also have information on specific characteristics of varieties they sell.

If you have more questions regarding specific varieties that may work on your farm to help you accomplish your goals, please do not hesitate to reach out. Call your Busch Grains Crop Specialist or email the Crop Science team at cropscience@grainmillers.com. The Crop Science team at Busch Grains would be more than happy to discuss varietal options and seeding considerations with you.

The post How to Select Resilient Oat Varieties appeared first on Busch Grains.

Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye first bred in the 1950s.

Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye first bred in the 1950s. Triticale retains the robust and disease-resistant qualities of rye while offering advantages for milling and baking also found in wheat.

Versatile Applications

Triticale, with its clean aroma and flavor, is a versatile grain viable for use in a wide variety of sweet and savory products. The mild flavor of this component, a subtle blend of nutty and earthy, can effectively enhance the textural and nutritive properties of products without detracting from the overall impact on the palate.

Triticale is also versatile in that it can be utilized in a variety of forms. As a flour, it creates a moist, chewy, dense texture for breads, cookies, muffins, and bars. When used in flake form, it functions similarly to rolled oats, particularly effective as hot cereal or in cookie or muffin recipes that typically require oats. Whole triticale berries—comprised of the grain’s most nutritive elements, germ, bran, and endosperm—offer a texture similar to that of sunflower seed kernels ideal for breads, granolas, salads, waffles, and more.

High Nutritional Value

Triticale is highly nutritious, rich in protein and dietary fiber as well as minerals and vitamins, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, thiamin, and folate. It is also free of cholesterol and trans-fatty acids, making it ideal for health food applications. When ground into a meal, triticale can be used to add nutritional value to smoothies, batters, or doughs. Because triticale contains no animal byproducts, it can also be used in vegan food products.

Grain Millers’ Promise: Quality, Custom Products & Service

At Busch Grains, we provide whole and rolled triticale in Organic, Non-GMO, and Conventional forms. With our single-source advantage, we are positioned to provide our partners with quality ingredients, tailored formulations, and personalized expertise in research and development of new products.

If you would like to request a sample or further discuss Busch Grains’ triticale products and applications, we would love the opportunity to speak with you. We specialize in partnering with food and beverage developers to create unique, innovative ingredients that help you succeed.

Email us or give us a call at 541.687.8000 to get in contact with an expert.

The post Triticale: The Underestimated Versatile Grain appeared first on Busch Grains.

Although oats are naturally gluten-free, they can become contaminated by gluten-containing grains as the supply moves from the field, to on-farm storage, to trucks and railcars and eventually through the mill. In 2008, Busch Grains began pioneering a proprietary gluten-free oat production process, giving us the ability to remove gluten-containing grains from the oat stream and offering the purest possible oat products. Thus meeting nutritional desires and dietary needs of the growing gluten-free consumer base.

In 2008, Busch Grains began pioneering a proprietary gluten-free oat production process…

After installation of our gluten-free milling system, it wasn’t as simple as notifying the industry we now had gluten-free oat products. The certification process involved multiple on-site visits and nearly 1,000 individual samples. Our gluten-free milling flow was audited from top to bottom for its ability to produce oat products that met the FDA’s standards time and time again. We completed the certification with the help of BRCGS, utilizing their Gluten-Free Management System. We continue to operate this system with same stringent checkpoints and robust sampling procedures we used to achieve our certification.

Why Gluten-Free Oats?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and crossbreeds such as triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye). Celiac disease; a genetic autoimmune disease that limits a person’s ability to digest gluten, affects 1 in 100 people worldwide. It is estimated that another 6-7% of the population may have a sensitivity or intolerance to gluten. In an effort to regulate the food system, the FDA set a limit of 20 parts per million (ppm) for the unavoidable presence of gluten in foods that are labeled as “gluten-free.” This amount is so low that it is tolerated by most people with Celiac disease.

Gluten-Free Oats Production Process

Busch Grains’ gluten-free oats are processed in a way that effectively removes all wheat, barley, rye and hybridized grains that may possibly arrive at our facilities with the oats. Through our dedicated gluten-free cleaning process, we isolate a highly pure groat stream that is further purified and refined in our dedicated gluten-free milling system. (A groat is the nutritious grain of an oat after its outer husk has been removed. Groats are rolled into the “rolled oats” that we know and love).

Busch Grains dedicated gluten-free milling system took years to develop and perfect, and we regard it as Top Secret! Although the machinery we use in the process are important, our team of mill operators are a vital part of the process, responsible for monitoring and adjusting the equipment. Our millers have been educated about celiac disease and have been trained on both Busch Grains gluten-free milling practices and the specifics of gluten-free testing.

Busch Grains dedicated gluten-free milling system took years to develop and perfect, and we regard it as Top Secret!

Our dedicated mill operators would tell you they could not perform their duties without the help of our lab staff who are responsible for verifying all gluten-free samples meet our <10ppm gluten specification. Our lab staff performs the rigors of gluten-free testing in dedicated gluten-free clean rooms.

How Does the Gluten-Free Equipment Work?

While cleaning and purifying grain stream is simple in concept, there’s a lot that goes into deploying this technology to and repeatedly achieves the desired results. We like to think that there are equal parts art and science that go into configuring and operating grain cleaning systems. So, we don’t know whether to call our millers artists or scientists, but in reality, they are a little bit of both. We’ll just settle on calling them awesome!

Our 4-generations of oat milling experience led us to believe we could achieve <10ppm on every load of oats from any of our dedicated farmers and the installation of our gluten-free lines and their continued performance has a proven this to be true. Our record of achieving gluten-free results through processing was proven to exceed that of the Purity Protocol strategy of excluding the presence of gluten-containing grains only at the farm and transportation levels of the supply chain. 

Our 4-generations of oat milling experience led us to believe we could achieve <10ppm on every load of oats from any of our dedicated farmers…

In direct cross-examination of Purity Protocol gluten-free oats and Busch Grains gluten-free oats, a 2018 study completed by the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America showed Busch Grains’ gluten-free oats in the table below. During the completion the study Busch Grains gluten-free products were analyzed using a ≈70% larger sample pool than that of the Purity Protocol gluten-free products. A copy of that study is available here for download.

Seed cleaning of grains has existed for decades if not centuries. In order for farm purity programs to be successful, harvested grain which will be used for seed in upcoming crop years, periodically requires cleaning to mitigate increased contamination levels other grains and weed seeds in subsequent crops. With our knowledge that oats are routinely purified for seed planting, we thought, “Why not then also for consumption?”

Busch Grains Oats Exceed Gluten-Free Regulations

In addition to rigorous process, we take samples of the gluten-free groat stream every 3 minutes of production to further ensure that it is pure. In order for oats to be certified gluten-free, gluten levels must be less than .002% or 20 ppm.

Our goal was never to merely meet the strict regulatory limit of 20 ppm—we wanted to see just how pure we could get our oat products! We’ve perfected our gluten-free production process to the point where most of our customers depend on us to supply oat ingredients that are less than 10 ppm–a 100% improvement in the purity level required for gluten-free labeling.

Gluten-Free Oat Production Doubled

The need for certified gluten-free oats has continued to rise. In response, we have invested in a major expansion at our oat mill in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. This expansion has more than tripled our gluten-free production capacity, giving us one of the most advanced oat mills in the world strategically located in the heart of some of the most fertile oat acreage in North America. We can depend on our local oat farmers to supply us with the best oats on the continent that we care for and mill into the highest quality gluten-free oats from Busch Grains, they are receiving much more than a standard oat-based ingredient. As with all our products, the work we do producing gluten-free products is more than processing, it’s our promise.

Other Gluten-Free Grains and Seeds

Busch Grains offers many other grains, seeds, and pulses that are naturally gluten-free. These ingredients can be great alternatives to gluten-containing grains. They do not encounter gluten throughout their process and do not require any additional processing to ensure they are gluten-free.

• Corn, corn meal, corn flour, corn grits, corn bran
• Flax, flax meal
• Brown and white long-grain rice
• Soybeans (non-GMO natto, white hilum, high protein)
• Quinoa (white, red, black, tricolor)
• Tapioca starch
• Amaranth
• Lentils (green, brown, black, split red)
• Mustard (brown, yellow)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Chia seeds
• Sesame seeds

In addition to being a gluten free oat supplier, Busch Grains also offers certifications such as organically certified, non-GMO, kosher, and halal.

We specialize in partnering with food and beverage developers to create unique, innovative ingredients that help you succeed. If you have questions about our gluten-free ingredients, or anything else, we’re always happy to help you.

Email us or give us a call at +1 (323) 686-2779to get in contact with an expert.

The post Busch Grains Gluten-Free Oat Products – A Pioneered, Proven, Promise. appeared first on Busch Grains.