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advice on oat harvest needed

D

Dave from MN

Well-known Member
OK, have only grown oats once, wasnt much of a success thast year. This year I have about 34 acre of it. They look good, still pretty green, but very tall and pretty heavy on oats. Some areas they are up to my waist and I am 6"2". My question is what is the best practice going forward. Do I swat a little green to prevent loss? Am i better off having some one straight combine? Need some advise from some one that knows what to do with such a heavy crop of oats. Kinda worried about heavy rains, alot of mature rye in the area has been laid down from past storms the last couple weeks.
 
Oats likes to be swathed so it can dry- along with any weeds.
Straight combining usually doesn't work with oats.
I don't know what part of Minn you are from but in the southwestern part we have had so much rain and high humidity I wouldn't try straight combining oats.
 
Sounds like they are ready to get the binder out and start cutting and shock and let them mature to be ready to run them through the threshing machine
 
We never did swath the oats first.

I don't know what would be worse a week of rain on windrowed oats or a week of rain on standing oats.

I think I would want the oats standing with a week of rain.

Swathing only takes place about 3 days sooner than standing combining anyway. Bout the only time oats were swathed around here is if they are weedy.

There I gave you another opinion that goes against the others.

So now you still don't know which way to go.

IaGary
 
Dave, I live in northeast Missouri and nobody swaths oats around here but I know in your area that is commonly done. I know they are swathed to make the weeds and the oats ripen and combine evenly. However, you have to balance that with the fact that once the oats are laid down you risk them because of inclement weather. Standing oats can take that weather better and wait on you to some extent (although not indefinitely). There are good points and bad points to both methods. Mike
 
I forgot to mention that in my area all of the oats raised are straight combined. We have to dodge the rain clouds sometimes. We can't count on it being dry here. Mike
 
Dave, We were going to cut our oats yesterday but with some green in it we decided to wait until next week. With the thunder storms predicted today may have been a bad decession. We are in Dakota county getting ready for the fair. Gordy
 
You need to swath oats,at least in Minnesota.Too much green down toward ground to straight-cut.

We always used oats as a cover crop for the new alfalfa ground so the new alfalfa plants would be pretty tall and green.In your case,weeds would slug the combine if not left to dry.
 
When I farmed in NC ILL no one I know of including myself swathed oats.Besides the grain and bedding, oats were our cover crop for the next crop of Alfalfa and Bromegrass.At first I combined with an AC 66 pull machine but eventually I got a Gleaner A. Combine just above the young hay crop and after combining clip the new hay seeding at ground level then bale and chop the bedding.We got rained on a few times but never lost a crop.Swathing on a new hay seeding would be a disaster if much rain prevented combining IMO.JH
 
a few guys in sw Mn straight cut oats but usually the straw is too damp, also oats will go through a sweat if you bin it after st. cutting, we always swathed it and will again this year, some rain on oats after cutting it will make it thresh easier, just don't cut it too high or the weather will push it down into the stubble which is not a good thing, wait until it's ripe then lay it down.
 
Dad raised oats for over thirty years in the county just west of you, I"ve raised oats, barley, wheat for over thirty years a half hour SW of you. We always swathed the grain, but not out of habit- just need. I"ve seen a couple neighbors straight cut very clean barley, maybe twice. Today"s combines can hammer out a standing crop, but if it heats in the bin- then what? A very mature standing crop will lose a lot by a delay in combining. A swathed crop, left to dry a few days, will let the weeds and grain dry, and the oats can/should be cut before dead ripe. Kernels should be hard, and shell out in your hand with a bit of rubbing. First year I farmed, it was wet, some oats laid for 3 weeks- oats was ok, although the underseeded alfalfa was damaged. Once I had wet barley that was in danger of sprouting- and built the fluffer pictured, using a JD windrow pickup with a hyd motor drive to vary speed, and a center cylinder to switch from side to side. Looks cobbled together, because it was- in about a day. By setting ground speed and fluffer speed, could pick up the windrow, pull it apart a bit, and move it over...onto new underseeding.
Fluffer.jpg
 
Depends if you are in the dry western/ northern area, or the humid parts of MN.

Lasy year for the first time ever I straigh cut 5 acres of oats. It was so so terrible dry, there was nothing green in the field. But any low spot, would just plug up the combine, a few green alfalfa's would get it.

Typically with the weeds and cover crops, it is far too green to put through a combine straight. You need very clean fields to think of straight combining. In this part of the state anyhow. Need a good spray program to keep the weed flush away.

It's best to cut it just a bit of green left in the field. You lose a bit of test weight, so not good to cut too early, but if you cut too late it shatters a bit, and as you say falls over.

I should be cutting mine, but have other things to deal with the next 2 days. see what the weekend brings. So very very humid today, and storms north of us this morning. Getting to be a scary year, don't know what the weather brings next.

--->Paul
 
Around central NY, oats are just combined. Cut just low enough to get all the oats then if you want to the straw cut again with the haybine. Most
combines are not good at eating rocks and the combine operator cannot be sure the landowner liked to pick rock.
 
If you straight combine them I'll give you some advice an old timer gave me. When you think they are ready, wait another week.
 
Some of my buddies got the binder out, cut and shocked oats last Saturday for the Grand Meadow Heritage Days Sept 11th & 12th. If you want to inspect the shocks, they are at the South edge of Quimby Iowa on the West side of the road.
 
We always swath ours, or else it's just too green to combine. Had a custom guy try it standing for us 1 year (he insisted he could do it) and he broke a belt that cost more than it cost us to have him run the field. Plus he rutted it up a bit.

We swath our oats, ussually, 1 day ahead of the combine. It's just enough to let the weeds and other greens wilt and dry down so they don't cause an issue.

We use our Hesston 1014+2 hydroswing haybine to swath. It works ok even though it has an auger instead of drapers, but when it's that or borrow from the nearest neighbor who still has a draper head I'd rather just drop the crimper every year. I'm actually planning to drop the crimper this weekend from our hydra-swing to swath the oats, probably cut them next week.

P1020527.jpg


Donovan from Wisconsin
 
A lot depends on how clean your oats are. If they don't have too many green weeds then you can direct cut fine. Also it makes a difference what combine and header you have. I have a JD 9610 combine. I run a thirty foot grainhead in soybeans and would NEVER use it in oats. I have an older 218 rigid head that I use for oats. I never have had trouble. If the green stuff gets too thick open the cylinder up and let it pass through. You will still get most of the oats but will not grind the green weeds up. Run your cylinder speed as high as you can get it. Then set your concave as close as the crop will let you before grinding it. Then just use some common sense. Don't try to run head high rag weeds through and then wonder why it plugged. LOL neighbor tied that last year.
 
In michigan they are usually ran right through the combine. Never seen them swathed here. Little weeds in them if thick enough and were sprayed with 24d.
 
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