Well It's Arrived

The Dick Tracy Wrist Radio......only in current technology. Venture capital news is displaying a communication "hootus" (looks like a miniature Ipod) that you wear on the back of your hand.

Now that I maybe have your attention, looks like the weather is forcing me to change my hay crop plans for the year. Due to cool spring weather and summer Aphids, looks like this is not a year for Sudan-Sorghum Haygrazer which is the preferred crop.

Question is, while using my tractor to plant my oats, I have 3 questions.

1. I know horses are routinely fed raw oats but what about mature oats in the field harvested while still growing but mature, for baled hay to feed cows. I know that mature wheat makes dough in ruminant animals, but what about oats?

2. I know oats are a cool season crop but wondering about early planting. Texas A&M folks say that in my region of N. TX. Feb 10 is the start date and said that several days of 20 degree weather will kill them. What do you do and what are your results?

3. How about the other end. We are supposed to have a cool spring and above average rain in April and May. My hay patch dirt is a gooey mess right now and see no signs of it drying out enough to plant till maybe June which is supposed to be hot and dry (all per the gift of the Old Farmer's Almanac). Do oats just not do well in hot weather?

Thanks,
Mark

Around here oats is used as a cover crop. Not many people will feed oats to their animals, but will cut the oats off early and use it for forage. If I remember right it's best to cut it while it's in the milk stage. As for when you should plant it. Early is always better. Oats likes cool wet weather. I've seen oats come up and then get snowed on. When the snow thaws out the oats really takes off. The old timers used to say it (snow ) was the cheapest fertilizer there is.

Oats do not contain gluten. The gluten is what causes wheat to turn to "dough" in ruminant animals. Oats are fine to feed to cows.

We always used oats as a cover crop for new seedings, and would either chop or bale the oats, ideally right before they started to head out. Usually the weather would screw us over and they'd be well into head stage by the time we'd get to them.

IMHO they make great ensilage, but they never worked well as dry feed. No matter how green they were when you baled them, you ended up with STRAW after it cured in the bale. The cows would generally turn up their noses at it.

That's odd. I've seen a lot of oat hay baled and it always stayed green in color. If it got rained on it turned to a straw color though.

I agree with all you said but I want to comment on cutting the green oats for hay. Because I am often too late in my spraying I wind up with many weeds in the oats so I usually cut them when they are in the milk stage and round bale them to feed to my beef cows in the summer. The cows love them and leave the pasture to get them.
One note though, you need to store them away from buildings and do not try to keep them very long because they attract rats and mice.

Horses can graze growing oats and baled hay. IMHO most people tend to let oats get too mature before cutting for hay which in turn causes rodent infestation. Back when I raised oats for hay "if weather permitted" I cut oats shortly after all heads emerged long before milk or dough stage. I also always planted them in the Fall in lieu of the Spring and never had any get froze out.

I have to ask about the gluten or lack of in oats. I am very allergic to oat gluten. It is different than wheat gluten. And oats have more fiber.
My uncle always planted oats for hay for his dairy cows and did not bale it till it was mature. I always thought he should bale it earlier to get more protein. If baled at the milk stage, it makes very good hay. Of course we plant ours here in October.
Richard in NW SC

Best development on the wrist computer front is a rig that senses when you fall asleep (apparently by a combination of movement or lack thereof, pulse, etc.)- and it can be programmed to wake you when you're driving, or even more cool, to pause whatever you're watching on TV until you wake up again!

Now that's what we need- some high-tech solutions to REAL Life problems. . .

Back in threshing days, farmers would thresh oats in the yard to make a big straw pile that the cows and horses could use for shelter. The animals would eat caves in the straw for both the roughage and the oats kernels that were blown into the stack by the thresher.

The animals would crown into the caves at night to get out of the weather. If the cave got too deep that it risked collapsing on the animals. we had to break down the straw overhead and let them eat a new cave. By spring, there would be very little left of the straw stack.

I discussed my weather related problem with my beef producing customer. He is the one who suggested oats due to the cool spring and over abundance of moisture in April and May (in a drought strickened Texas). So I have the cusomer and the product. Problem now is to get it to work.

Thanks for your comments.

Mark

It's been a while but isn't the best time to cut for forage just before they head out, for best feed value?

(quoted from post at 18:30:45 01/20/15) I discussed my weather related problem with my beef producing customer. He is the one who suggested oats due to the cool spring and over abundance of moisture in April and May (in a drought strickened Texas). So I have the cusomer and the product. Problem now is to get it to work.

Thanks for your comments.

Mark

Click to expand...

y place is in Rains County & for years, I planted oats in the fall about September, winter grazing, combined when mature (about May), baled straw. Worked well for me for about 10 years until "cheat" ruined the situation due to me not doing crop rotation.

On sorghum type crops that is what's taught. One of the reasons is when the boot forms and the head starts maturing, the rest of the plant goes from growing and succulent to dormant and fibrous.

I agree on the rest of the plant being of less quality, but the head has the fertilizer so it's not lost, just a different form in my way of thinking. So guessing what the educated guys are thinking the loss of the rest of the plants nutritious value overwhelms the benefit of the seed pod.

On oats and rye grass I would think that it just didn't matter that much since they are tender plants when considering a sorghum cross. But I am not an AG. PhD and can's answer that.

I think the weather is going to be boss as usual. If it lets me in on time I'll have it in the milk or less stage. If not, like most folks, I'll have to take what I get.

Thanks to all of you guys for your replies,

Mark