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Intra‐varietal Diversification in Oat Breeding 1
Author(s) -
Jensen Neal F.
Publication year - 1952
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1952.00021962004400010009x
Subject(s) - diversification (marketing strategy) , citation , plant breeding , library science , agricultural science , mathematics , computer science , biology , agronomy , business , marketing
OATS is rather unique among grain crops in the United States in that the principal use of the harvested product as feed imposes few geographical limits on its growth. A popular wheat variety may have as wide a range of adaptation yet because of the influence of market factors its acreage will tend to be concentrated in an area as well defined as the hard red spring wheat region. A popular variety of oats on the contrary is limited in its spread only to the degree that it lacks adaptation to various environments. Oat varieties, thus, can and do spread over vast areas of the United States. Stakman (17) and Stevens (20) among others have pointed out the effect of changes in varieties on changes in the population of certain plant pathogens. It seems obvious that the plant breeder has unwittingly aided the rapid build-up and spread of plant pathogens through the simultaneous release and propagation over wide areas of oat varieties which frequently have the same complex of disease susceptibilities. Stanton and Coffman (18) described 18 varieties of oats recently released through the cooperative efforts of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and several state agricultural experiment stations. Of these 18, 15 were Bond-related varieties. The same pattern of similarity was evident earlier when plant breeders released several varieties derived from crosses with Victoria. It can easily be seen why oat breeding problems are national in scope. There is no lack of confidence in overcoming the present disease problems in oats through a plant breeding approach, but it is also clear that these problems sometimes demand a solution within a shorter period than even the minimum time required to produce a new variety. Such is the case with the problem of race 45 of crown rust today, and there is a growing realization that the production and distribution of new pure line varieties alone as in the past may not be a sufficient measure to provide the desired stability in oat production. This thought has recently led to rather general agreement on several elements which together may be summed into the one word diversification.