Seeding oats today

I put a combination of old machinery together late this afternoon and seeded the waterway. The temp was 32 and required bundling up a bit on my part but the wind was almost calm and they're talking rain (what's that?) for Thursday with the possibility of thunder so I figured I'd better take advantage of the favorable conditions and get it done. I ended up seeding about two bushels per acre of oats and maybe 25 pounds per acre of brome. The tractor is a 51 model, same as me. The wagon is older but I don't know how old and the IH seeder is one dad bought in 1948 but I don't know if it was new or not when he bought it. The owner's manual talks about the average walking speed of a horse in the settings section and it has oil holes instead of zerks so that dates it somewhat. Some of those tires on the running gear have to be from the fifties so I don't put much more than ten pounds of pressure in them. Makes for a softer ride too. Tomorrow I'll hook the harrow and roller to the Oliver and work it in. This wagon is like a Cadillac to me. When I was a kid that seeder was in a triple box wooden wheeled wagon that rode like a lumber wagon. Dad drove the tractor and I tried to stand up in that heaving, pitching wagon while shoveling oats into the seeder. If I had to stand in that bouncing, jarring wagon today I'd be sore for a week! LOL Jim

Good looking 88 and wagon. Seeing it brought back memories of driving a DC Case and wagon and seeder for Dads friend sowing brome and oats and other grass seed in the late 50's to seed soil bank acres. Helped do a quarter of land and I was 10 or 11 years old. Dirt coming off the tractor wheels and cold as heck! I got to drive and he scooped the seed.

Your saying (rode like a lumber wagon)haven't heard that in a long while. Ron Mn

wow !!! 32* your a real trooper, good for you though. some day i'll have some implements and irrigation in so i can grow some stuff. our land and tractors are paid for so it's not all that bad. almost there

casecollector I wanted to pull it with my favorite little SC but the Oliver's seat is higher making it easier for me to see back into the wagon. The SC will see plenty of time in a month or so pulling the rock wagon. Jim

Just curious... where are you located? It's going to be the best part of a month before we're seeding anything here in eastern nova scotia.

Rod

Where are you located? March and 32F sound early for seeding oats, but you ground looks dry and ready.

The streams and rivers are still frozen in central MN. We will be lucky to get into the fields around Easter, April 20.

I'm in Northwest Iowa. March seeding of oats works OK and is preferred but we don't often have the chance to March seed because of the weather, and yes, we are dry, too dry. Canadian weather is ideal for oats because summers are cooler. We Iowans can only dream about the oat yields and test weights you get 'north of the border'. Here in Iowa we need to get them in super early so we can hopefully get them headed out and mature before hot weather comes. The oats I'm seeding are just a nurse crop for the brome grass and they won't be harvested for grain.

If we seed oats in late April or even May there's a fairly good chance we'll have light oats. When I harvested in Saskatchewan we cut oats in September or later, hoping to get done before snow came into the picture. If it snowed the swaths laid under the snow and were harvested in the spring. Here in NWIA oats are harvested in mid to late July. We NEVER have to worry about getting snowed out combing oats. LOL One Sask farmer told me he seeds his oats last, after everything else is seeded. I guess there's a good reason why Iowa grows better corn and Canada grows better oats. Jim

I also love the 88, all I use is Olivers.

It is always good to see the rain come when you need it but sometimes a pain to get everything together and get done what you need to before it comes.

I read, last year, that the biggest buyer of Oats
IN THE WORLD, is "General Mills", and 80% of
their purchases were from Canada. Oats is a Cool
weather crop, and Canada has the best growing weather.