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Effects of Impact Dehuller Rotor Speed on Dehulling Characteristics of Diverse Oat Genotypes Grown in Different Environments

¹USDA-ARS Hard Red Spring and Durum Wheat Quality Laboratory, Harris Hall, North Dakota State University, Dept 7640, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050. Names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by the USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may also be suitable. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: Douglas.doehlert@ndsu.edu ³Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Dept, North Dakota State University, Dept 7620, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050. ⁴Dept Plant Sciences, Loftsgard Hall, North Dakota State University, Dept 7670, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050. ⁵NDSU Williston Research Extension Center, 14120 Highway 2, Williston, ND 58801.

Commercial processing of oats for human consumption generally requires impact dehulling to isolate groats from the hull. Impact dehulling involves feeding oat grain into the center of a spinning rotor that expels the grain against the walls of the dehuller. The force of the impact breaks the hull from the groat. We have tested the effect of rotor speed on dehulling efficiency, groat breakage, and unbroken groat yield on 18 oat genotypes from replicated plots in six different environments. Dehulling efficiency and groat breakage increased with rotor speed with all genotypes and environments, but there were significant genotypic and environmental effects as well. In general, genotypes with higher test weight and kernel density dehulled more efficiently at slower rotor speeds. Oat genotypes with higher oil and protein concentrations in their groats tended to break less during dehulling. Oats from hotter, drier environments suffered greater groat breakage. Maximal unbroken groat yield represented a balance between dehulling efficiency and groat breakage, but groat proportion and dehulling efficiency appeared to be the most important factors contributing to groat yield.