# First oat hay of the year



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Thought I would share a few pictures of my oat hay. As you can see it turned out very nice and the bales have nice color with light green stems and dark green leaves that reminds me of the coloring of dollar bills.

This was my first time planting any oats in the spring.....always planted winter oats in the fall which is what is normal for here. I didn't get them planted last fall and had already bought seed so I said I would give a March planting a try. The oats grew fine and looked healthy but were half the height of fall planted oats. They were also thinner since they didn't have all winter to grow tillers. The yield was only 60 bales per acre which is about half of what fall planted oats yield for me.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Looked nice thick hay when cutting. How heavy were the bales? How big was the field?


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Nice Hayden. What stage were they in when you cut? Hard to see in the pic but doesn't look like milk or dough stage. Mine were a week or two behind yours. Mine headed out last weekend. Good job!


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

hog987 said:


> Looked nice thick hay when cutting. How heavy were the bales? How big was the field?


 Bales weighted about 50 to 55 pounds. That field is 6 acres and I also had a 4 acre field on the ground. I still have 27 acres of oat hay to make.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> Nice Hayden. What stage were they in when you cut? Hard to see in the pic but doesn't look like milk or dough stage. Mine were a week or two behind yours. Mine headed out last weekend. Good job!


 They were pollinating when I cut and had been headed out about a week. I cut them last Saturday morning and baled Monday afternoon. I have a field of oats I planted on a piece of ground that I had some trees cleared off and it was April 15 when I planted and they are just now starting to show a little head. I know that was crazy late to be planting oats but they look good but are even shorter than the oats planted in early March.....it seems that planting them later affects the total plant height more than the heading date.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Around here Iam just getting ready to seed my oats. Hope to put the one field in early next week and than the other field about 2 weeks after that. I don't want to seed to early or my oats will be ready to cut before I will be done my first cut of hay.


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Cline,
That's some very nice looking hay and a nice piece of equipment as well. Is that a particular variety or is there just one. What is the price per bale? Just curious Keep up the good work


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

clowers said:


> Cline,
> That's some very nice looking hay and a nice piece of equipment as well. Is that a particular variety or is there just one. What is the price per bale? Just curious Keep up the good work


 The variety is graham.....it is a winter oat variety. I'm getting $6 per bale.


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

It's very nice looking. You sell it for horse hay or cow hay. Sorry for all the questions.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

clowers said:


> It's very nice looking. You sell it for horse hay or cow hay. Sorry for all the questions.


 Thanks, oats make some really nice hay if done right in my opinion. Most of this will go to horses though I do have quite a few people buying it to feed goats. Around here nobody buys square hay for cattle.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> Thought I would share a few pictures of my oat hay. As you can see it turned out very nice and the bales have nice color with light green stems and dark green leaves that reminds me of the coloring of dollar bills.
> 
> This was my first time planting any oats in the spring.....always planted winter oats in the fall which is what is normal for here. I didn't get them planted last fall and had already bought seed so I said I would give a March planting a try. The oats grew fine and looked healthy but were half the height of fall planted oats. They were also thinner since they didn't have all winter to grow tillers. The yield was only 60 bales per acre which is about half of what fall planted oats yield for me.
> 
> ...


Right nice looking hay Hayden-always loved the looks of oat hay just did not like the exponential mouse population explosion where it was stored. What do you follow your oat crop with?

By the way, not too shabby on the view in the background either-that is one of the reasons that western NC was always on my list of possible places to live.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Looks good. Usually have ours seeded by now but been too wet. Thats about the stage we chop ours and put them in the silo. They make good feed always wanted to dry them to bale but never get the weather


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Hayman1 said:


> Right nice looking hay Hayden-always loved the looks of oat hay just did not like the exponential mouse population explosion where it was stored. What do you follow your oat crop with?
> 
> By the way, not too shabby on the view in the background either-that is one of the reasons that western NC was always on my list of possible places to live.


 This oat hay will not have any more of a rodent problem than orchard grass hay as there is no grain the the heads yet.....I found out a couple years ago about oat hay made with grain on it, I swear every rat within two counties was in my barn tearing the bales apart. The quality seems to be better cutting it before it has made grain and you don't have a rat problem.

I'm going to plant a short season soybean that will come off earlier in the fall to allow me to get back to planting oats or grass this fall. I'm also going to plant about 6 acres into sorghum sudangrass.

I'm in the foothills but we have a great view of the mountains. The particular mountain you see in the background is part of the South Mountains and interstate 40 runs right at the base of it. Most parts of the county you have good views of the blue ridge and Linville Gorge is in the western part of our county.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Looks good. My experience with oat hay has made me never want to do it every again. It seems whenever we have tried it rains and rains when it is ready to cut and we can't get in the field. Then by the time we could cut it has seeds, then it rains more. So it ends up being lousy hay that attracts mice.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Teslan said:


> Looks good. My experience with oat hay has made me never want to do it every again. It seems whenever we have tried it rains and rains when it is ready to cut and we can't get in the field. Then by the time we could cut it has seeds, then it rains more. So it ends up being lousy hay that attracts mice.


 I never would have thought that Colorado would get that much rain to make hay harvest difficult. What is your yearly rainfall?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> I never would have thought that Colorado would get that much rain to make hay harvest difficult. What is your yearly rainfall?


It doesn't. I just have had bad luck with oat hay.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

FC your hay is looking good. Looks much better than what we planted here in the Fall. I think ours was planted too late, some drowned and some froze out.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

Looks good.. That's what the oats looked like I'm February down here.


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Colby

What variety do you plant and at what time of the year. Where is lee county


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> This oat hay will not have any more of a rodent problem than orchard grass hay as there is no grain the the heads yet.....I found out a couple years ago about oat hay made with grain on it, I swear every rat within two counties was in my barn tearing the bales apart. The quality seems to be better cutting it before it has made grain and you don't have a rat problem.
> 
> I'm going to plant a short season soybean that will come off earlier in the fall to allow me to get back to planting oats or grass this fall. I'm also going to plant about 6 acres into sorghum sudangrass.
> 
> I'm in the foothills but we have a great view of the mountains. The particular mountain you see in the background is part of the South Mountains and interstate 40 runs right at the base of it. Most parts of the county you have good views of the blue ridge and Linville Gorge is in the western part of our county.


So are you planting forage oat varieties? My experience with the mice problem was back in the day and they were just oats (grain oats) which you were supposed to cut in dough stage. People that cut early in milk stage made a mess of things and lost nutrient value, people who cut late still have rats to this day. I suppose with the newer forage varieties that rodent management is a little easier just don't have any experience with it.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

clowers said:


> Colby
> 
> What variety do you plant and at what time of the year. Where is lee county


We plant just feed oats to graze cattle on, put it in the ground by Oct 1 and it last till about April 15. I'm in south central texas


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Hayman1 said:


> So are you planting forage oat varieties? My experience with the mice problem was back in the day and they were just oats (grain oats) which you were supposed to cut in dough stage. People that cut early in milk stage made a mess of things and lost nutrient value, people who cut late still have rats to this day. I suppose with the newer forage varieties that rodent management is a little easier just don't have any experience with it.


 No, not a forage variety. I don't see how cutting early lost nutrient value with any variety.....think orchard grass....the earlier you cut the higher the quality and by the time it has seed in the heads the quality is not so good....the same should apply to oats.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> No, not a forage variety. I don't see how cutting early lost nutrient value with any variety.....think orchard grass....the earlier you cut the higher the quality and by the time it has seed in the heads the quality is not so good....the same should apply to oats.


I plant a forage oat called CDC baler. Has lots of forage material. Also can have oats in the head and the plant will still be green. That way it can have maximum tonnage and still have good nutrient vale. Cattle just love it and will eat it before the alfalfa hay.

I would check to see what forage oat would grow in your area. With the right one you can greatly increase your yield and still have quality.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

hog987 said:


> I plant a forage oat called CDC baler. Has lots of forage material. Also can have oats in the head and the plant will still be green. That way it can have maximum tonnage and still have good nutrient vale. Cattle just love it and will eat it before the alfalfa hay.
> I would check to see what forage oat would grow in your area. With the right one you can greatly increase your yield and still have quality.


 I looked into a forage oat variety one time but the seed was pricey and the window for making oat hay here is quite short and if they have already gone past the milk stage I will just wait and combine them for grain rather than making hay so a dual purpose oat is important. Usually with fall planted oats yield isn't a problem as I will get 100-130 bales an acre cutting sometime between heading and milk stage. Since these oats were spring planted I think that is why my yield is off.....spring planting is not highly recommended here.....it seems like the oats were meant to head out by a certain date and the later they were planted the less time they had to put on growth before heading.


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