Oat hay

[Eli]

Does any one have any experance with oat ha. I have a friend who got his land back from a renter wants to seed it down but needs feed as early as possable I told hin to make oat hay. He thinks I’m nuts and I am but that’s beside the point. Eli

[carl ny]

Plant with your grass mix and cut before the oats head out when still green.
Never hurts to be a little nuts…

carl ny

[Eli]

We used oats and peas as a cover crop for alfalfa and harvested it as silage(hard to harvest). I remember my dad talking about oat hay, figured its all grass as long as you make it relatively early it’s gotta be good feed. I will tell my buddy I’m not nuts or at least not the only one who is. Now to figure out what it was sprayed with last year it was corn. He traded hay for rent but got bad hay (moldy) so the deal ended a year early. Eli

[near horse]

Here guys will plant forage oats (just a variety that yields more like Magnum) to clean e field (it allows them to manage for broad leaf weeds). The protein levels can be higher than some grass hays (10-12% CP) and yields pretty good but it is an annual so one cut and you’re done (here). That said, one of my friends swears his horses won’t touch oat hay so he puts up barley hay.

[Jonathan Shively]

Oats as a cover crop for a new hayfield/pasture here on my farm. Oats grow faster and shade the weeds, gives the hay a chance. Like others said, cut when green and heads are filling, be careful and let it dry, make sure your cats are hungry. I think mice are baled up and brought in, but you’ll have mice. I like to keep my oats hay for Jan/Feb feeding, but the mice enjoy it up til then. If you try to keep it over summer they will have the strings chewed in two. If his horses don’t like it, wonder if he has some mold on it. All of my stock eat it like cotton candy.

[Eli]

I think we will give it a try in spring sounds promising. Eli

[gwpoky]

If we move to a different farm we will be planting oats for sure and possibly Barley as well. great thread.

[Riverbound]

Just to put it out there, I know you’re talking hay, if your friend is looking for early graze, we planted pearl millet for early horse graze last year, although oats would be cheaper and earlier. Also spring wheat is an option.
We did get three grazings off the pearl millet, and the horses seemed pleased.

[PeytonM]

My parents rented out all our land to my uncle and I ended up running short on hay and had to buy some, I got it from a friend, last year it was strait alpha, being the summer was rather rough they planted oats in with it so they would get something, My horses like the hay with out oats more I think, Mainly becuase the oats hay is mainly just oats and not much hay. I alternate one day oat hay one day strait hay, I had some regular hay left over, they seem to like that.

[dominiquer60]

I fed oats from a cover crop that became a problem for my no till garlic. I fed it green fresh cut to my steers, they really liked it until it got a little too old and started to deteriorate in quality. I got a good 10 days of green/nearly green feed off that little plot. Like Carl says it can have some good feed value when, like any hay, it is cut on time.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Michael Low]

We make grain hay for our goats.

The limiting factor is that it takes a longer time to dry, because of the stem moisture.

We have thought it would be ideal to harvest at this stage or that, but around here we just have to settle for a good 4 day window to dry well. That window decides harvest time and there are probably benefits harvested at any stage.

Our mix has been Japanese millet, barley and oats all at the same time. Under seeded with pasture grass. After we cut, the grasses come in and they are perennial.

We use this technique to renovate old pasture.

Animals love it.

[Kevin Cunningham]

My old boss swears that the best hay he put up was barley and pea hay for his cows. We usually do oat hay in this area but with the drought I am having to water the over wintered oats. Barley is more drought tolerant so I might try that this year for a quick spring hay. Times are desperate here on the coast.

[Author]

Posts