# oat hay



## danzig (Jul 30, 2015)

My question is it to late to plant oats as a cover crop for my new hay seeding. June 1 st. I live in east.cent Mn. Short on hay this year and could use some oat hay. Appreciate your help. Dan


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

From what I've seen late planted oat hay (as in after May 1 for us) doesn't yield near the tonnage for hay that oats planted in early April will. Oats can be a challenge to get dry for dry hay as well. It should be cut at boot stage for best quality but it will take at least a week to dry at that stage, so we wait until it is nearly ready to turn before cutting, then it is usually dry in 4 days.


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## BisonMan (Apr 27, 2020)

I'm also interested in this topic. I put in oats to begin a pasture, the idea was that I could make a little money on it, and it would keep the weeds down and provide some shade.

The current plan is to roll it into hay. Have people had a good experience selling oats hay?

The other alternative would be to combine it, but it seems to make more sense to bale the grass up.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Certainly seeding it earlier is better but late seeded oats can yield well also. I'm still seeding oats as a nurse crop with alfalfa and grass seed now. Had planned to be done sooner but had a breakdown, wait for parts, one part wrong wait some more, fix drill, go seed, have another chain keep jumping off, find another bearing shot, gotta order parts again.

Oat hay can be a challenge to get dry. We usually cut ours in the milk stage maybe slightly in the early dough stage. Feel its the best compromise between quality and yield. If you want the best quality cut it in the boot stage but your going to want hot dry weather to dry it down.

I've had mixed results selling oat hay. Some guys love it and want all they can get, others would prefer grass hay or alfalfa. Sometimes my cost of production can get rather high with oat hay. It all depends on how it yields. A good year 5 big round bales per acre is easy. A drought year like the last three years and 3 bales per acre is the best it'll do.


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## BisonMan (Apr 27, 2020)

IHCman said:


> Certainly seeding it earlier is better but late seeded oats can yield well also. I'm still seeding oats as a nurse crop with alfalfa and grass seed now. Had planned to be done sooner but had a breakdown, wait for parts, one part wrong wait some more, fix drill, go seed, have another chain keep jumping off, find another bearing shot, gotta order parts again.
> 
> Oat hay can be a challenge to get dry. We usually cut ours in the milk stage maybe slightly in the early dough stage. Feel its the best compromise between quality and yield. If you want the best quality cut it in the boot stage but your going to want hot dry weather to dry it down.
> 
> I've had mixed results selling oat hay. Some guys love it and want all they can get, others would prefer grass hay or alfalfa. Sometimes my cost of production can get rather high with oat hay. It all depends on how it yields. A good year 5 big round bales per acre is easy. A drought year like the last three years and 3 bales per acre is the best it'll do.


Sorry to hear about your mechanical problems, what a pain. I'm in SW Ontario so hopefully we get some summer rain here and over there in Minnesota for you too.

How much do you get for a big round bale of oats?

Its my first year at this and I'll be baling some oats as a cover crop over a 40% legume pasture. I've heard that Oat hay sells well to Horse farms, but also its very difficult to deal with them as customers. I'm sure I could sell it to a local dairy operation, but it might not be as good a price, unless I store it till winter which I've heard is a good option.

Are there any steps I should be taking based on these two paths to suit the hay one way or the other?


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