More than 100 of the world’s leading researchers in the oat industry are convening in Baton Rouge this weekend to open a dialogue with each other about their work.The American Oat Worker Conference will be held from Saturday to Wednesday and is attracting oat researchers from across North America and from as far as China and South Africa, said Stephen Harrison, president of the American Oat Workers and LSU AgCenter plant breeder.Harrison said the event will feature workshops and about 40 talks and roundtable discussions on topics including oat genetics, diseases, nutrition and heart health, all of which are important matters concerning such a healthy grain.”Oats are a very heart-healthy grain — more so than any other grain,” Harrison said. “That’s why we eat oatmeal and oat bran.”The conference, which is held once every four years, is being underwritten by large players in the oat industry, such as Quaker Oats and General Mills, according to an AgCenter news release.Oats have much lower acreage in Louisiana than they did about 40 years ago, but Harrison said the grain is still widely used throughout the state.”They’re used for pasture, grazing and silage for dairy cows because they’re very nutritious, harvested for grain and fed to horses, and they are widely used by deer hunters who plant them in the woods and hunt over them,” he said.In addition to researchers presenting the work they have done over the last four years, workers in the oat industry will also be able to hear from large companies about their expectations for the future.Holding the conference every four years allows researchers to give broader presentations on their work, Harrison said.”Four years is a short span in terms of ongoing research, but it does allow an exchange of ideas,” he said.- – – -Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]