Genetic progress in oat breeding in Southern Brazil

The oat (Avena saliva L.) cultivars cultivated in Southern Brazil up to the beginning of the 80's were introduced from Uruguay and Argentina. They pre sented adaptation problems to the new environment. Starting from the 70's, oat breeding programs began to produce their own segregant populations. The se programs already released 35 cultivars. Aiming to estimate the genetic p rogress in oat breeding programs from southern Brazil, an experiment with 1 5 cultivars released in different times was conducted in two locations usin g four different cultural practices. The results indicated linear genetic p rogress for days to flowering, grain yield, grain weight and test weight. T he non significance of quadratic effects suggested the possibility of addit ional gains through selection of new genotypes. The oat breeding programs i n southern Brazil have been efficient in producing new cultivars with highe r grain yield, good grain quality, and with superior agronomic traits. Howe ver, a maximum breeding plateau was not reached for this species.