New Oat Varieties Boost Forage Industry and Saline Land Utilisation in Inner Mongolia

Joint technical efforts in Inner Mongolia have achieved fruitful progress in the breeding and large-scale promotion of high-quality forage oat varieties, driving the high-quality development of the regional forage industry and improving the utilisation efficiency of local saline-alkali farmland. The collaborative research combines technological innovation with field demonstration to address regional forage supply shortages and land resource constraints.

The regional agricultural technology promotion institution cooperates with the Institute of Grassland Science under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Relying on national agricultural science and technology programmes and major collaborative technical projects, the joint team advances systematic research on new forage oat variety breeding, field verification demonstration and adaptive planting in saline-alkali land areas.

A new high-yield forage oat variety Zhongcao No.78 has been successfully bred under key research projects targeting the Yellow River basin. The variety features tall plant height, early maturity and stable high yield performance. Comparative field tests show that its average hay yield reaches 700 kilograms per mu and seed yield hits 260 kilograms per mu. It delivers a hay yield increase of 11.71% to 23.59% and a seed yield increase of 10.59% to 20.78% against conventional control varieties.

Zhongcao No.78 presents excellent agronomic traits with high uniformity and low variant plant rates. A 200-mu seed production field has been established with robust and stable crop growth, laying solid foundations for future seed multiplication and large-scale regional extension across Inner Mongolia.

To tackle the widespread saline-alkali land and insufficient forage supply in Inner Mongolia, the research team promotes the adaptive cultivation of Zhongcao No.33, a saline-tolerant oat variety developed through years of selective breeding. The annual gramineous forage can grow normally in soil with total salt content below 0.6% and pH value lower than 9.5, making it highly adaptable to marginal land in central and western Inner Mongolia.

Zhongcao No.33 shows stable and superior botanical and nutritional indicators. It has a mature plant height of 130.0 to 140.0 centimetres with sturdy stems and effective tillering capacity. The variety has a growth cycle of approximately 100 to 105 days in local planting areas. Field evaluation records an average hay yield of 750 kilograms per mu and seed yield of 300 kilograms per mu. Its high nutritional quality includes 13.1% crude protein content at the milk-ripening stage, with balanced fibre composition suitable for high-quality forage provision.

Demonstration planting of Zhongcao No.33 has achieved stable performance in local bases, maintaining a seedling emergence rate above 85%. The applied “technological breeding plus collaborative promotion” model realises original innovation of fine forage varieties and smooth transformation from laboratory research to large-scale field production.

The innovative technical system provides reliable variety guarantees and technical support for the quality upgrading and efficiency improvement of Inner Mongolia’s forage sector. It supports the green and sustainable development of local agriculture and animal husbandry, while unlocking the productive potential of saline-alkali land to optimise regional agricultural resource allocation.