When to cut oats

flying belgian · Jul 7, 2022

I seeded some alfalfa with 2 bushel oats nurse crop this spring. Oats is fully headed out now. I sold my combine so can't harvest oats. What should I do? No one needs it for hay. There is so much hay this year in so. MN you can't give it away. Ideas?

showcrop · Jul 7, 2022

It should still make stock hay that will fetch good money come March.

BarnyardEngineering · Jul 7, 2022

My answer to when to cut was, yesterday.

Except the feed mill told me 1bu per acre was enough, and then only sold me about half enough oats to do that. Of course I put them in on a Saturday and by the time I realized I wasn't going to have enough it was after noon and the mill was closed.

Where the oats were planted they came up nice. Where the oats were thin or nonexistent, I have a bumper crop of ragweed.

jon f mn · Jul 7, 2022

Cattle love oats hay cut just before it turns. Makes excellent hay.

fastfarmall · Jul 7, 2022

What we did was cut it a week before we would normally cut it for grain, and bale it, round or square, if you square bales it, i must warn you they are heavy,that oats will mature, and they are loaded with oats shelling out all over! Grind it with the tub grinder, and makes a good growing ration base for cattle, but if you cant sell it, i would hire some one to combine it, and sell the straw to get it off the field!

flying belgian · Jul 7, 2022

Do you think I could cut it when ripe and leave it lay? Alfalfa would come next spring and the oats over winter would become fertilizer for the new crop alfalfa. There is no market for cattle feed what so ever around me.

ss55 · Jul 7, 2022

Check the local prices for oat straw compared to the prices for oat hay. I suspect the extra income from both grain and straw will far more than pay for the cost to hire or rent a combine.

Have you worked with oat hay before? Oat straw keeps much better than oat hay. Field mice love oat hay even more than cattle do. We only had oat hay for one year, by November every oat hay bale I moved had mice in it, oat straw did not.

Roger Tomfohrde · Jul 7, 2022

Have a chopper? Cut it and blow it back for fertilizer.

flying belgian · Jul 7, 2022

When would I do that?

rockyridgefarm · Jul 7, 2022

How many acres? Oats are pretty valuable right now. Last I heard was $6 per bu on bin run conventional. I would surely find a way to harvest them!

flying belgian · Jul 7, 2022

The closest market for oats is 80 miles
away. Paying $3.92 today.

BarnyardEngineering · Jul 7, 2022

(quoted from post at 11:12:34 07/07/22) When would I do that?

Chopping it? Any time.

Cash4Toys · Jul 7, 2022

Oats in Scott/Rice County is $4.50 today. Straw brings pretty good money in small squares, sometimes more than hay. You have to think hay prices will rise, yes 1st cut went well, ut its so dry here nothing is growing, and i think the north has been wet. Combine and bale the straw would be my bet

rrlund · Jul 7, 2022

You might do best to let them stand right there and let the birds have them. If you put them on the ground, they're going to sprout and be in direct competition to the alfalfa (again). If they don't go down until after it's too cold for them to sprout and grow much, they won't be much threat in the spring.

caterpillar guy · Jul 7, 2022

I'd either cut it for hay or combine then put up the straw. About the only choice since you can't chop it for silage. If you just blow it one the ground if it is not spread as it is done you will kill the new crop in the strip from the chopper blowing it back on the field. If you wait for the ots to be falling off you lose a year of hay. Oat hay would be good horse feed also.They could cut back or eliminate their grain feeding for that time.

ss55 · Jul 7, 2022

If you can not hire or rent a combine, is buying an other smaller older combine to use just for oats an option? Rasp bar, spike tooth, windrow pickup or direct cut could all be made to work. I suspect you will get more income from small square bales of oat straw than you will for oat hay, plus the extra income from the grain (40 to 80 bushels per acre?).

Yet another option would be to sell the oats crop standing in the field for someone else to combine and bale. It may not be very profitable, but it would remove the oats before it can hurt the new hay plants.

fixerupper · Jul 7, 2022

(quoted from post at 14:00:09 07/07/22) I'd either cut it for hay or combine then put up the straw. About the only choice since you can't chop it for silage. If you just blow it one the ground if it is not spread as it is done you will kill the new crop in the strip from the chopper blowing it back on the field. If you wait for the ots to be falling off you lose a year of hay. Oat hay would be good horse feed also.They could cut back or eliminate their grain feeding for that time.

Yes, cut it now and bale it so your seeding can get some light. My son seeded four acres to oats orchard and alfalfa in April. The oats and orchard was drilled in 2 bu/A, the Alfalfa broadcast, drug and rolled in. It turned out to be the most beautiful stand of oats I have ever seen on this farm by far. We cut it a week ago and rolled it up three days later. A cattle feeder is buying it. The seeding looks great and we haven't had near the rain you have had by Mankato. Your seeding should pop after the oats are taken off.

flying belgian · Jul 7, 2022

I guess I have decided to just cut it and leave it lay.
Should I cut it now or wait until it is ripe?

rustred · Jul 7, 2022

if your cutting it for feed , you cut it on the green side. long as the kernels have milk in them. dont wait till ripe standing. cows like it when its young that why we call it green feed. either make round or square bales. years ago dad made green feed bundles with the binder. cows will eat green feed before hay. leaving it ripen the leaves are gone and its basically straw . takes quite a while to dry it also.

redforlife · Jul 7, 2022

Mow it off, let it dry, and then bale it for hay. Worry about selling it later.

What rustred said. Only you can go clear up to about the point it'll shatter when putting it up for hay, and it's not to late for hay. If it shatters when putting it up for hay, you waited to long to put it up for hay.

Last time I did this, the oats (grain) was way past milk stage. But not ripe enough to combine. It ended up being some really good hay. Didn't have much alfalfa in it. The cows would eat it first, over prairie or brome hay either one, if they had thier choice. I don't know if they would walk away from alfalfa to eat it, I never tried that part. But it was some dang good hay. Kind of blew my mind.

It would of shattered when haying, if I would of waited ANY longer, to put it up. By all means, hay it if you can.

If it's been offered to others if they will do it, and they turned it down, they probably just don't have the time, or don't know how good of hay oat hay is if the grain is still in it.

Some people combine it, and bale the straw, and call that hay. And that's not AT ALL the same. That is not much better than wheat straw, all though the cows will it a little of it if they are hungry enough.
The oats being left in the hay, makes a WORLD of difference when it comes to feeding it!!!

showcrop · Jul 8, 2022

Leaving it to lie will kill a lot of the Alfalfa. Alfalfa seed is not cheap. Perhaps you have no way of handling or storing the bales??? Everyone is posting to bale it but you say nothing about the down side of baling except poor CURRENT LOCAL market. Way more hay is put up for future consumption than for immediate. It is hard to figure out what your situation is.

coonie minnie · Jul 8, 2022

I second showcrop's opinion, cutting it and leaving it lay isn't a good idea. It will smother the alfalfa, and a good chunk will be there still when you want to harvest the alfalfa.

Find someone to bale or chop for silage soon, or let it go for grain and combine it... hoping it doesn't lodge prior to harvest.

When to cut oats

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