# Rust on oats



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

About 7-10 days ago just as my spring oats were starting to head out I started seeing some rust on the lower leaves. In a weeks time the rust spread very quick and a large majority of the leaves were covered and some of the lower leaves have already turned brown and died. Today was the first chance I had to cut the oats for hay and there was a orange cloud of the rust coming off them as they were being cut and the haybine is orange. What I'm wondering is how the leaves with the rust will affect the feed quality of the hay?

I have never dealt with rust to this extreme before.....certain parts of the field was worse than others but pretty much the whole field was affected. It was amazing how fast it spread on the plants.


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

Having this problem this year. How did this hay turn out @FarmerCline ? Noticed it last week. It rained so I couldn't cut, and more rain today. The whole field is very orange. Worried about the quality once I get at it. Will be fed to my sheep and goats, not sure what palitability will be like.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Bishop said:


> Having this problem this year. How did this hay turn out @FarmerCline ? Noticed it last week. It rained so I couldn't cut, and more rain today. The whole field is very orange. Worried about the quality once I get at it. Will be fed to my sheep and goats, not sure what palitability will be like.


 There was quite a bit of dead leaves by the time I cut which I'm sure lowered the feed value some. The hay also didn't look as nice and green because of the rust. I didn't send off a forage sample so I'm not sure how much the feed value was reduced. I sold the hay to a regular customer that feeds a lot of hay and she said the horses ate the hay fine but they didn't seem to like it quite as much as the previous year oats which did not have any rust. I never found any info that said that the rust would make the hay unsafe to feed.


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

Ok, thanks. Cut the field today. The haybine is no longer new holland red, but looks more like a kubota. I'll see what this ends up being as hay. I don't need to sell it. It is more foxtail, lamb's quarter, pigweed, and ragweed than oats almost.

Hopefully the sheep will eat it. I know the goats will, they love ragweed and mostly fight over a single stem if it is in a bale.

I as well found no information saying rust was bad, just that the hay will be of a lower feed value.


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Had some seasons with leaf rust on oats. Does not look good but no reports of adverse issues other than palatability and digestibility are reduced but not alarmingly. Grain yield is also reduced.

Wet conditions when the oats is approaching maturity facilitates the production of rust and it spreads very quickly. Only real solution is to plant a rust resistant variety in future.


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