Tillage adaptation of spring oat (Avena sativa) cultivar yields

Cropping practices are moving towards reduced tillage to improve soil health and help mitigate climate change. Oat crops are commonly assumed to yield relatively well under non-inversion tillage conditions compared with barley and wheat but whether there is any differential adaptation of cultivars to tillage has not been investigated. To determine whether there is differential tillage adaptation between spring oat cultivars in response to tillage method. We compare eight husked and one naked spring oat cultivar under inversion and non-inversion tillage across two seasons at a site in east Scotland in 2023 and 2024 in split-plot trials and assess yield and thousand grain weights. Two cultivars tend towards inversion tillage preference and two towards non-inversion tillage preference for yield, each changing 3 or 4 rank positions. The oldest two cultivars, Canyon and Conway respectively, showed the clearest responses. Thousand grain weight differed with season and tillage treatment but there was no differential ranking effect on thousand grain weight of tillage on these cultivars. There are likely to be heritable trait differences amongst oat germplasm that could be beneficial for adaptation to different tillage and agronomy. Cultivars more suited to regenerative cropping tillage practices can be identified for use in practice and for future breeding.