January 2005 : Inglewood hay grower, Mark Wright trialled something new among his oats varieties last season, and is pleased with the results.

Planting his feed oats in 15 acre plots in order to monitor how much feed was harvested from each paddock, Mr Wright said 2004 was the first time he had planted Taipan oats, planting 60 acres of a total oats crop of 180 acres to the variety.

"The Taipan yielded 4.8 tonnes per acre of hay for baling, which is very good for an oats crop" he said.

This yield result was above the other varieties planted.

Mr Wright said one of the management techniques that helps to maximise the yield from his oats are the winter rotations he uses.

"We plant in rotations of lucerne for three years, then oats for three years," he said.

"Following the lucerne, the oats go wild."

Mr Wright sells the hay into feedlots for around $170 -185 a tonne, and while he doesn't currently do feed quality tests, said he will likely do them in the future.

"Oats normally come out at 14-16% protein," he said.

The crop was planted in June, and Mr Wright said the paddocks of Taipan came out on top of the other varieties he planted.

"The Taipan stood up to the frosts well, and we had some big ones last year."

"That's one of the things I liked about it."

Mr Wright said that he has found lodging (falling over) to be a problem with all his oats crops, and looks at ways of reducing this.

"Lodging can be a real problem in oats," he said. "You can end up leaving a tonne per acre of feed on the ground because you can't pick it up."

To help combat this, he said they stress their crops early to encourage better, strong root development. Mr Wright was so impressed with Taipan, he said he plans to plant his whole oat crop to the variety next season, which will be around 250ac in total.

"Then, when it warms up we pile the water on to the oats and they come back quickly."

"It's hard to know what works best for lodging, but that's how what we do."

Farm agronomist, Doug McDougall from Border Ag Services said Taipan is a high quality, high producing oat that handles it when it gets tough.

"Under ideal conditions it leaves the others for dead," he said.

"The biggest plus about Taipan is on the early plant, it just keeps growing though the toughest conditions."

"It produces a beautiful leafy plant that has an ultra late flowering habit and we're still feeding it in December if it's managed properly."