Wheat vs. Oats Straw

Stan - Florida

Well-known Member
Does anyone have opinions on which is better - wheat or oats straw? It's been 55+ years since I helped bale any, but, as I remember, Dad always said the oats straw was "slick" and didn't absorb animal excrement as well as wheat.

We usually raised 15 acres of wheat each year and probably twice that much oats (for hog feed).
 
we never have done much with wheat, but the oat straw definitely was fairly slick, unless it was out there for a while getting rained on. Then it seemed to absorb better, but of course when used as a cover crop the alfalfa underneath was in risk of being smothered if not taken care of soon enough.

We chop canary grass for bedding, and that will absorb more than either.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
We always use oat straw. It works well and makes a good bed for the cows. I don't believe we have ever used anything but, unless oat straw wasn't available. Every scrap, oat straw, chopped corn cobs, hay that none of the animals will eat, saw dust, furnace ash, all goes into the gutter and back on the field.
 
We always used Wheat straw for bedding. We never baled our oats straw. Wheat straw will work better to absorb liquid if it has been rained on and dried out to bale. It looks better if you are selling if it has not been rained on. I planted about a half acre of oats this spring. I didn't think it was worth the bother to combine it so I mowed and baled it. I feed about a bale leaf per horse about twice a week and let them eat the oats out of the straw. I feed it on the ground and the straw seems to hold moisture quite a while after a rain.
 
As long as it is clean and dry when I bale it so it shakes out nice and easy, I don't care which one it is! Seemed the oats straw fluffed up more if that matters!
 
We cut, combined and baled our oats straw on the green side. Not very absorbent, but cows would eat about half of it for roughage if there was still some green in the stocks.
 
On the farm growing up ,we baled both wheat and oats for straw. The wheat straw was used for the hogs and the oats straw for the cows. Dad always said the oats straw would make the hogs itch.
 
We always use oats straw for bedding and the milk cows would eat a lot of it before laying down on it.
 
I have used all kinds of straw to bed my draft horses and draft crosses for the past 40 yrs. I really don't think any of it has much ability to absorb urine. What I like about it is you have organic material that can go back onto the fields, with a lower ph than sawdust or shavings. They will eat Oat straw more than wheat. Barley and wheat are the most common choice that I get to buy around here.
 
Either way that you go,it's softer and more absorbent if is gets rained on then dries off again before it's baled. Letting it get rained on takes the waxy layer off the outside of the stems.
 
That's actually pretty good, we baled all the oat straw after combining, all of it was sold and they wanted more of it at this large dairy, they mix it in with the feed for roughage. It also brought $30 more per ton as I recall, I hauled all the bales for this farmer that year, we even hauled all the clean chaff and any broken bales. The one thing that I did not like was the baler was a JD sileage special, 583 maybe, and the additional knives were processing, not sure how that works, but those net wrapped bales were terrible to handle, they switched it back and the bales were nice dense bales you did not have to worry about what happened when you speared and lifted them. Some of the other ones barely made it onto the truck.
 
guess it depends on what era one has farmed in. back in the '50,s and '60,s when we and Grandparents farmed, dairy cattle were put in stachions with a gutter behind and slanted floor so bedding was more for warmth and cussion than for soaking up. During summer they pastured outside in fields or woods. For this reason we preferred oat straw because it held air inside it's stem better and thus insulated better. Bust open a few bales of each and play around in it for an hour and see which you would like to sleep in? lol Farming changed and I'm sure priorities are different for open lot cattle.
 
I remember my dad saying that the cows ate ? traw like it was candy, his words. I DONT remember which straw it was he said they ate, wheat or oats.
 
(quoted from post at 12:47:54 08/17/15) We always used Wheat straw for bedding. We never baled our oats straw. Wheat straw will work better to absorb liquid if it has been rained on and dried out to [b:ce9f47cddb]bale. It looks better if you are selling if it has not been rained on. I planted about a half acre of oats this spring. I didn't think it was worth the bother to combine it so I mowed and baled it.[/b:ce9f47cddb] I feed about a bale leaf per horse about twice a week and let them eat the oats out of the straw. I feed it on the ground and the straw seems to hold moisture quite a while after a rain.
think that 1/2 acre was neither worth it to start the tractor up to plant it or cut and bale it either.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top