Stupid question (forgive me)

So can you plant oats on a hay feild as a cover crop, combine it and still make hay off that ground? I honestly dont know so please forgive my ignorance I dont know when you plant/harvest oats or anything so thanks in advance!
-Garrett

Sure you can.

Yes it is well proven to work. It has been done for many years. When we grew oats with alfalfa included we broadcast 3 bushels per acre oats and worked the oats in. Then we came through again seeding only alfalfa seed and worked it in shallower than the oats. in my neck of the woods nobody had a grain drill, oats and whatever was added to the oats was broadcast.

When would you plant them? I'm in northern wisconsin btw

Next season.

We would seed the oats with a drill that had a seeder for the alfalfa. We would do it just before we put the corn in. the earliest dad did was when there was still snow drifts in the ravines.Usually late April into May. Just south of the Twin Cities in MN.

No question is stupid. When you are trying to learn.

Yes. And I do it that way.

However.....

You won’t get a very big hay crop the first year. The oats shades and competes with the hay, making it smaller the first year.

Many folk will chop off the oats as silage, so it is harvested sooner and lets the hay kick into gear quicker.

Another option locally, and I think your area, is to plant oats, harvest it, harvest the straw, and then plant the hay crop in early September (here) so it is ready to go next year. This allows a good oats and straw crop, and the fall hay seeding typically has far less weed and erosion concerns, it will establish well and be growing well next spring. This allows you to maximize both crops, not compromise. You won’t get that hay crop the first year, but you get better oats and a stronger hay crop starting out.

Typically, oats is planted as early as you can get in the field. Even if a little snow is around.

With the hay, you want to moderate that a little bit. Plant when the weather should be pretty good here on out. More so when one would start planting corn, or near there.

Typically you plant 3 bu of oats for grain.

As a nurse crop for a hay seeding, it’s better to plant 2 bu per acre, so the hay gets a little more sun and a little less competition.

Anyhow, that’s how it’s done around here in a cold minnesota type climate.

Paul

I can only remember to back in the late 1940's where Dad walked with a seed whip to whip on hay seed in early spring on wheat fields. When I was in High School he bought another whip so I could help. I have his whip deal and I think they called it a horn. He whipped on alfalfa and brome grass. He had an Oliver grain drill with a seeder box but wanted to seed when it was to wet to drive a tractor in the wheat.

It is NOT a stupid question. One way to learn is to ask. Oats are normally planted in ground that has been tilled. It has been a common practice for years to plant grass seed with oats. The oats are taken off that year and the hay gets established. Whether or not you would get a hay harvest the same year depends on the length of your growing season and weather.

Depends on type of hay crop. Alfalfa works good like said but now take red clover or timothy they need to be planted in spring with the oat crop or as soon as possible, even frost seeding in winter wheat. Ohio - Indiana area

Planted my alfalfa that way last year.



Planted some grass hay that way this year. You can see the grass coming through.



I generally plant the oats a bit thinner when used as cover to give the hay a better chance. This was planted at 2bu-acre.

The earlier the better once soil is dry enough. Oats doesn't like the hot and dry from late in the season. Best oats I've grown sprouted under snow.

We used to plant Oats and at the same time plant either Red Clover,Timothy or Lespdeza, combined the oats,baled the straw and if we got some decent rain cut hay later.

Years ago it was common practice in this area to plant oats with grass seed. At that time about everyone let the oats mature, combined them and used the oats in their grain rations for their dairy cows in one manner or another, then harvested hay for several years starting the next year. Nowdays nearly everyone around here plants oats with their grass seed, cuts the oats off as hay early to mid-June and then harvests one to two cuttings of hay off the field the same year. Depending on several factors, the field will be harvested for hay anywhere from another two to ten years before being plowed up again. Back before tile drainage was common, once you got a really low/wet field seeded, you didn't plow that sucker up for the next 20 years if you could avoid it. LOL!

Maybe 15 years ago a few local farmers tried mixing alfalfa seed with Treflan in their field sprayer and spraying the mix on bare ground, then working it in. It ended up being a passing fad though one of the Alfalfa fields looked pretty good to me from the road. They must have had huge nozzles to pass that seed through and of course no screens.