# Oat hay???



## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

I just found out that I am going to be able to lease 30 acres of hay ground which I am really excited about since good ground where I live is almost impossible to get. Currently the ground is in alfalfa, but it is thin and weedy and I feel like if I tried to salvage it would be a waste of fertilizer. I was thinking about discing the whole place up when the ground dries up enough, and planting it in oats next spring then planting orchard grass next fall. If I cut oats at the boot stage would it look more like hay when square baled or would it dry up yellow like straw? how would it compare to orchard grass if cut at this stage as far as quality of forage? I would be trying to sell it to horse owners.Thanks in advance!!


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Oat hay will yellow if it lays in the windrow too long and is exposed to humidity. Problem is it is a bugger to get dry, at least at boot stage as you are thinking. Tonnage per acre can be pretty good if fertility is decent. All the oat hay I've baled custom (5x6 round) has gone for beef cow winter feed.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Tried it the last two years small scale it sucks! I'm done wasting time and money If you have no personal use for it don't try it .If it where me take that first cutting off then spray dead and start over.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> I just found out that I am going to be able to lease 30 acres of hay ground which I am really excited about since good ground where I live is almost impossible to get. Currently the ground is in alfalfa, but it is thin and weedy and I feel like if I tried to salvage it would be a waste of fertilizer. I was thinking about discing the whole place up when the ground dries up enough, and planting it in oats next spring then planting orchard grass next fall. If I cut oats at the boot stage would it look more like hay when square baled or would it dry up yellow like straw? how would it compare to orchard grass if cut at this stage as far as quality of forage? I would be trying to sell it to horse owners.Thanks in advance!!


I've always had bad luck with oat hay. The planting and growing part has always been easy, but every time I've ever grown it when it is ready to be cut and baled it rains and rains. Why don't you plant grass next spring? I have an old field of alfalfa that I'm going to disc and rip in the spring and plant orchard and brome grass. I'm through with oats forever.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Ok thanks guys that gives me a good idea not to do it lol!

I have never planted orchard grass. I have only planted fescue in the spring. If I plant it by it's self might as well just used my money to start a fire. Where I live by June it is dead from the heat, and usually lack of rain. The only way I have had luck with it is to sow oats with the fescue as a nurse crop pretty heavy and leave it alone till the beginning of September. Then I have had great luck, but when you finally do cut it's not good for hay because of all the oat straw, and it's not good for straw because of all the grass mixed in with it. So it really doesn't put me ahead that I can tell.

Right now I think next spring I am just going to spray the whole place with glyphosate and then spray it again if need be.... pay the lease and let it sit till next fall. That way I haven't wasted time, labor, and money.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Nate, I have had reasonable luck spring planting orchard grass.....but I get it in the ground by the end of Feb or the first of March. I would go ahead the next warm period we have and spray with glyphosate now....if no warm periods you will have to wait until spring. Needs to be around 60 degrees for about 3 days before spraying to get the plants photo active again. Spring planted Orchard will make it if we don't have a month of drought next summer.

Regards, Mike


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Mike instead of spraying what do you think about if I just went ahead and worked the ground up and planted as soon as it dried up? I know it's not going to do any growing till next spring, but it will get me ahead of the game since I have other crops to plant in the spring. If I do this when would you fertilize?


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

Oat hay is terrible to dry but makes awesome wrapped feed. I have 75 bales in a tube that we will probably crack open next week for the cows.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Put up 200-300 4x4' Oats bales here a year. This year my wife second guessed herself and actually let some of it get alittle too dry, she wanted to give it one more day. Here's what decent Oats hay should look like:



















Next years Oats in the making:


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

We call it greenfeed here. But the oats I put up this summer tested the best of all my feed tests this year. Even better than my second cut hay. Lowest in protein but makes up for it in food value in fat and starch. The cattle love it. Sold of the bales to a cattle guy. This was all put up dry.


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## treymo (Dec 29, 2013)

Put up over 1000 oat and barley bales here this year. Both very similar to bale except barley isn't near as good of feed. The oats I baled was all on irrigated ground and made 4 bales/acre. Problem is, oats can be tricky to dry. Check the joints, that is the most important part. Crack them with a pair of pliars and if they aren't waxy feeling you should be good to go. I baled all of mine in 5x6 rounds with good humidity.

Trey


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I like oat hay a lot. If cut at the proper stage it makes some very nice hay.  I like to cut it as soon as it heads out before the milk stage.....at that point it is still very leafy and green and is easier to dry down than if it were in the boot stage and yields more. Don't let it go beyond the milk stage or it will have grain the hay and will draw rats from miles around and make a terrible mess from chewing the twine up. I never have much more trouble getting oat hay to dry than I do a heavy first cutting of orchard grass......much easier to dry than alfalfa. The majority of my oat hay I sell to horse customers and they like it a lot.....many of them tell me if they put out orchard or timothy and oat hay out that their horses will clean up the oat hay before even touching the orchard or timothy.

If I were you I would try to get the oats planted this fall yet.....I have planted oats into the first of December and they still did very well.....I'm actually going to be planting some more oats next week if it dries up. Spring planted oats don't yield anywhere near as good as fall planted oats in this part of the country. Another thought would be to no till the oats into the alfalfa and take a first cutting of oat/alfalfa mix then spray it out.

Here are a couple pictures of the baled oat hay and the oats when cutting.


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## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

Here, oat hay is hard to make unless it is taken for haylage. I would never plant oats for hay again. We have tried it as a nurse crop for fall planted orchard grass and had trouble getting it in as decent quality hay since we had a late spring. What little we did get put up nice was snapped up by sheep guys. We have fed oat haylage to cattle with decent results. But it can make a huge crop, and as others have noted it is pretty hard to get dry.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Farmercline if you don't mind me asking where do you live? Also you said oats are easier to dry out in the milk stage than boot stage.... Wouldn't the stems be smaller and more leafer in the boot stage since it comes before the milk stage? I'm not doubting you a bit just kinda confused.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> Farmercline if you don't mind me asking where do you live? Also you said oats are easier to dry out in the milk stage than boot stage.... Wouldn't the stems be smaller and more leafer in the boot stage since it comes before the milk stage? I'm not doubting you a bit just kinda confused.


You need to plant a forage oat for good forage not a grain oat. At least around here anyways. I cut mine in late milk stage so I do end up with grain in the heads. The forage oat ( baler is the breed) still is green with grain in the heads. The good thing about living in Alberta is we dont have rats to worry about. Infact I have never seen a rat in my life. The forage oat is good too because its leafy with a thick stem. But the livestock still eat the stems cause they are soft. They will eat the oats before any hay.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

hog987 said:


> You need to plant a forage oat for good forage not a grain oat. At least around here anyways. I cut mine in late milk stage so I do end up with grain in the heads. The forage oat ( baler is the breed) still is green with grain in the heads. The good thing about living in Alberta is we dont have rats to worry about. Infact I have never seen a rat in my life. The forage oat is good too because its leafy with a thick stem. But the livestock still eat the stems cause they are soft. They will eat the oats before any hay.


we don't have rats either, but we sure do have mice who love the stuff if it makes seed.


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## Uphayman (Oct 31, 2014)

We use oats as a nurse crop for all hay seeding. Did the bale attempt and did get it dry. Then 1 1/2 years later gave most of it away to clean out the yard. Just didn't have the quality or market. Now we bunker the oatlage off the alfalfa/grass seedlings. Much better. On straight grass seeding, we combine the grain, bale the straw, having a good market for both. Our light soils (high grade gravel ) make it virtually impossible to direct seed hay crops.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I will agree to those that have said that if you have livestock to feed it to it's worth it. Although I've never raised a decent crop of oats the market for it here isn't that good.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> Farmercline if you don't mind me asking where do you live? Also you said oats are easier to dry out in the milk stage than boot stage.... Wouldn't the stems be smaller and more leafer in the boot stage since it comes before the milk stage? I'm not doubting you a bit just kinda confused.


 About 15 miles west of Hickory NC. I like to cut the oats before the milk stage just as soon as they head out when they are pollinating.....the early milk stage would be the latest possible I would cut them for hay because after that they are going to have grain in the heads and you are better off combining them. The quality will be higher if you cut in the boot stage but the tonnage much lower......I have found that right after they head out is a good balance between quality and quantity. Even though it is leafier in the boot stage it is harder to dry because the plant moisture is higher and as the oats mature the moisture of the plant decreases thus making it easier to dry down.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

We chop ours and put them in the silo for winter feeding. Had some get dry almost too dry or so I thought. Almost went and got the tedder and dry em to bale. Chopped them anyway. Couldn't tell the difference when feeding. So yeah they are difficult to dry. Usually chop just as they are heading. Last year all it did was rain so they were in milk and the last ones were turning yellow and getting hard when mowed. Cows still milked good on them though. Make very good feed


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

I've had great luck with oat hay. We have chopped it in the past, but I typically prefer to bale it since I don't own a chopper. Therefore, I control when it gets done and it doesn't get dry to the point of being ready to combine before the chopper shows up.

I usually make pretty hellacious yeilds with oats, and luckly my climate is usually pretty conducive to getting them to dry with minimal fuss, since we never get rain until the 4th of July. I try to cut in the dough stage, which is usually a good compromise for me between tonnage, grain retention, and dryness. And I still expect to have them on the ground for at least 7 days before they are dry enough to bale. The only problem I have is they like to lodge between growing so tall and our spring winds. It obviously makes them more difficult to cut and to dry, but its just a cost of doing business.

The bales are usually yellow with some green to them, but I sell pretty much all of it to our local dairies and they understand that that is what oats are supposed to look like, so no problem there. And actually have started selling a few to some horse customers who like it as a cheaper supplement to feeding all alfalfa.

My Hesston 2170 has been a Godsent for baling oats/wheat/sudan, as baling forage with the ol' 4900 was typically very frustrating. Being that the stems are slick and light, I used to typically expend a ridiculous amount of time digging out the feeder for no good reason, and at the end of the day have a field full of marshmellow bales with a whole bunch of popped twines. But with that 2170, I just sit in the cab, turn on the A/C and radio, me and Shania bale all day long, and at the end of the day I have a field full of 3x4 bricks!


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

Interesting sidenote/tip if you have trouble oats/wheat plugging the feeder on your baler. I fould with my 4900 if I made it a point to bale in the OPPOSITE direction of the path of the swather, they seemed to feed considerably better than going with the direction of travel of the swather. With the 2170 its a non-issue, but with the old baler it definitely made a difference.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Farmercline thank you for all your information!!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Oats is not like many of the other small grains that need to be cut in the boot stage.We think if you wait till the heads are out you can make very high quality dry hay


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