Oats are grown primarily for livestock feed. Two of the best adapted varieties are 'Nip' and 'Toral'. Nip is a black-hulled, very early maturing variety developed in Sweden in the late 1950s. Toral is a yellow-hulled, early maturing variety developed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service at the Palmer, Alaska Experiment Station in the early 1970s. Average yield per acre ranges from 111 to 123 bushels for Nip oats and 122 - 134 bushels for Toral oats.
Winter wheat cultivars frequently have poor winter survival and result in poor yields.
Durum wheat varieties require a longer growing season than exists in Alaska and often fail to mature and ripen. Hard red spring wheat requires an additional 10 -15 days to mature and ripen for grain than barley and is a marginal crop in years with early frosts. Four of the best varieties are 'Chena', 'Gasser', 'Nogal'. The early-maturing variety Chena was developed in Finland in 1970. Gasser is named after the late Dr. George W. Gasser, agronomist and former Commissioner of Agriculture for Alaska.