ABSTRACT
The purpose of this work was to study the effect of grain morphology of oats on their industrial yield. The five cultivars studied: CTC3, UFRGS7, UFRGS14, UPF7 and UPF16 were grown in three localities with different soil and climate conditions, for two consecutive years. The parameters evaluated in the oat samples before and after dehulling were grain size and shape (by image analysis), comparing them to industrial yield, weight of a thousand kernels and hectoliter weight. The results showed that image analysis of oat samples (with hulls), does not have any relation to industrial yield, different from what was observed with groat samples (dehulled). Industrial yield varied according to genotype, locality and year, while area, minimum and maximum diameters and grain shape were only affected by the genetic factor. It was observed that longer grains (UPF16) had the highest industrial yield, differently to rounder and shorter grains (UFRGS14) which had a lower yield due to the ease of breakage during hulling; the smallest grains also gave a low industrial yield