Oat Hay

Easterner · Apr 1, 2011

Anybody have any experience growing oats for hay?

I know the old fella used to overseed oats to a clover / timothy mix, then cut the oats for hay at boot stage. The cows would eat the head off in the winter, and what was left would get thrown in the stall for bedding. That was back in the loose hay days, and it got turned every day by hand until it dried.

Can it be cut for decent hay earlier? I need to plow up a field and reseed to hay, but can't afford losing production on it for the year. The reason I want to overseed with oats is to keep the weeds down, and I don't want to spray. I seem to remember this working well when I was a kid, but I'd like to cut it a little earlier then we used to.

Any thoughts?

Charlie M · Apr 1, 2011

I just did the end off a field one year to get across to another field and I couldn't get them to dry enough- even after crimping. They may have been a bit too big to dry. My Dad used to plant oats to chop for cows and it worked pretty well - they loved them.

Erik Ks farmer · Apr 1, 2011

Best way to do it is to cut them in the dough stage when the head is milky. The tricky part is getting them dried down, the last several years have not been right to make good oat hay here. Takes 2-3 days of good sunshine with some wind to get them dried down after crimping. If you can get them put up right it makes some fantastic hay.

hayray · Apr 1, 2011

I have done it a few times and as far as I am concerned it is pretty useless as hay unless you don't have any other options. At best in my area of the country which is Michigan it only ends up to be 8% protein on the high end. Even when I cut it when it is green it bleachs right out to be straw by the time it gets baled.

sammydwm · Apr 2, 2011

when cut in the boot stage you get a higher protein when in soft dough you get less protein but more energy.
Too early and it really gets the cows poopin......
We put up some rounds last year of regrowth that was nowhere near boot stage yet and didn't care for it.
Either way, it's a bear to get dry.
anybody in your area might want to make it into silage?

Brendon-KS · Apr 2, 2011

I grew a little patch of oats last year for hay and
am doing the same this year. We have goats that
like both the hay and the grain. Last year I cut it
in the dough stage and the goats really went for the
grain-filled heads. Unfortunately, so did the mice.
Hardly a bale in the stack had both strings still
intact.

Tx Jim · Apr 2, 2011

I prefer to cut oats for hay just after most all the heads have emerged. This is days before the dough stage. Getting oat hay dry in Texas is easier than up north

JayinNY · Apr 2, 2011

Are you asking about oat straw? My friend grows oats for feed, combines off the oats than bales the straw for bedding, Halloween decerations ect. Some anmials will pick threw the straw and eat it, but I'd still feed them hay.

Easterner · Apr 2, 2011

Thanks everyone. I usually combine it and then bale the atraw, but I need to get more hay fields back into better production.

Is there another annual I could overseed to hay seed that might make better hay? Any ideas ... I'm in eastern Canada.

Thanks again.

JEH · Apr 3, 2011

You might look into teff grass. A buddy of mine planted it one year and the stuff really produced!!!

hayray · Apr 3, 2011

I think you are thinkin' old school when the older varieties of alfalfa seeding year barely produced anything and so oats were used to get a crop, but with new varieties there is no reason you should not get two cuts first year with alfalfa, I do it all then time clear seeding. Only time I use oat nurse crops is with hills. If you want a good annual then consider sudangrass, grows rapid and aggressive in hot dry areas and gets real tall. Can also be hard to dry unless you purchase the hay and graze varieties, I planted Garst bale and graze and it drys down real good.

Farmallb · Apr 3, 2011

My dad said many times that oat hay tasted like candy to the cows.

Oat Hay

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