History of oats cultivation in United States

The oat (Avena sativa) was domesticated around 2000 BC. The hexaploid oats originated in the Hindu Kush region.

Oats were first brought to North America with other grains in 1602 and planted on Cuttyhunk, an island off the Massachusetts coasts by Scottish settlers. Culture of oats became important within 30 years of its initial introduction.

As early as 1786, George Washington sowed 580 acres to oats. By the 1860s and 1870s, the oat production had moved westward and upper Mississippi Valley, which is its major area of production today.

The early farmers of Pennsylvania were general and livestock farmers, a system to which the culture of oats was well suited, resulting in expansion of oat production.

The variety ‘Kherson’ imported from Russia in 1896 by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, selections from it, marked the beginning of the early common spring oat variety in the United States.
History of oats cultivation in United States