The objectives of this work were to determine the drying curve and the physiological and industrial qualities of white-oat seeds as a function of the use of high initial temperatures in the intermittent drying. The experiment was conducted in November of 1997 in the seed processing unit of the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná (IAPAR) in Ponta Grossa - PR, Brazil. It was used an industrial dryer operated by the slow intermittent method and white-oat seeds of cultivar UFRGS 14, with 24.8% of initial water content that were dried to 12.5%. The treatments used were: control drying in oven, without forced ventilation, with constant temperature of 38ºC; intermittent drying with constant temperature of 80ºC for 90 minutes, followed by oven drying with constant temperature of 38ºC; intermittent drying with constant temperature of 80ºC for 120 minutes, followed by drying in oven with 38ºC; intermittent drying for 210 minutes, being 120 minutes with constant temperature of 80ºC and 90 minutes decreasing the temperature at a rate of 10ºC
every 30 minutes. The physiological quality was evaluated by germination, seedling vigor classification, accelerated aging, speed and field emergency tests, immediately after drying and after six months of storage (latent damage). The industrial quality (industrial performance, and unshelled and broken grains percentage) was determined soon after drying. The conclusions were: 80oC at the beginning of the drying process doesn?t affect the white-oat seeds germination and the industrial quality immediately after the drying; 80oC in the beginning of the drying process provides latent damages to the white-oat seeds physiologic quality; the drying curve in the intermittent drying may be expressed by a lineal function.