Thriving Nestor oat — also a variety for hot summers

The high‑yielding late oat Nestor BOR is a versatile new addition to the oat range. Although classified as late, Nestor is at the early end of late oats — suitable even for cultivation zone III.

Nestor^BOR is an excellent yield producer. In official trials:

• at all yield levels
• the highest or among the highest yielding
• across all soil types
• in all Finnish cultivation zones

Hanna Haikka, Boreal’s oat breeder, says: “Nestor is a truly thriving variety. It withstands challenging conditions — especially evident in dry and hot low‑yield trial years.”

Nestor suits:

• milling oat
• export oat
• feed oat

It has:

• the highest protein content among late oats in breeder trials
• large uniform kernels
• low share of small kernels

Nestor is also a healthy oat: “Nestor’s rust resistance is excellent, and leaf blotch resistance very good.
Based on our Fusarium testing, it is not sensitive to DON,” Haikka says.

High yield expectations in Eura

Seppo Katila from Eura chose Nestor due to interest in new varieties and its strong characteristics.

He sowed Nestor in early May on ~28 ha of autumn‑ploughed fields. Preceding crop: six‑row barley Hermanni.

May–June brought almost no rain — but Nestor tolerated drought well.

“Inspectors wrote: excellent stand. Amazing variety — doesn’t seem to need rain at all,”
Katila laughs.

Moist soil helped — fields were mainly:

• high‑organic fine sand
• organic soil

Fertilisation:

• 70–80 kg N/ha on organic soils
• 120–130 kg N/ha on sandier soils
  → Adjusted to ease lodging control.

Growth regulators were used with herbicide & fungicide on parts of the area. Some lodging occurred where regulator wasn’t applied with fungicide.

By early August, rain returned — expectations rose: “The stand is dense and excellent in every way. This will yield more than 7,000 kg/ha.”

• Cultivation details
  
• Variety: Nestor BOR
• Farmer: Seppo Katila
• Area: ~28 ha
• Soil: organic, plus high‑organic fine sand
• Preceding crop: six‑row barley
• Tillage: autumn ploughing
• Sowing date: 7 May
• Fertilisation: 70–80 kg N/ha (organic soils), 120–130 kg N/ha (sandier soils)
• Crop protection: herbicide + fungicide + regulator twice