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Oats for hay?

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littlejoe

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I seeded some oats for hay really early. Some was morgan, when I ran out of morgan, I found some otana.

Really weird spring, sat there a long time, then got hot and dry, tried to head out at about 6" on up. Then it started raining and I also got water running and flood irrigated it.

Cutting it now, it's from headed out--early, not even milk in kernels---to boot stage. It's uneven, some over reel of swather, down to maybe 16". Real thick and green. It's real heavy soil and holds lots of water and has just dryed enuf to hay.

So---what do I do next? How much will it regrow? enuf to make another cutting? I thought about stubbling some millet or sudan/sordan grass into it? Should I roundup the oats out? Graze the regrowth?

We get killing frost from about sept 15 to early oct.

Any input appreciated. thanks.
 
littlejoe said:
I seeded some oats for hay really early. Some was morgan, when I ran out of morgan, I found some otana.

Really weird spring, sat there a long time, then got hot and dry, tried to head out at about 6" on up. Then it started raining and I also got water running and flood irrigated it.

Cutting it now, it's from headed out--early, not even milk in kernels---to boot stage. It's uneven, some over reel of swather, down to maybe 16". Real thick and green. It's real heavy soil and holds lots of water and has just dryed enuf to hay.

So---what do I do next? How much will it regrow? enuf to make another cutting? I thought about stubbling some millet or sudan/sordan grass into it? Should I roundup the oats out? Graze the regrowth?

We get killing frost from about sept 15 to early oct.

Any input appreciated. thanks.
Click to expand...

I'd cut it for hay- use any regrowth/stubble for grazing... Might take awhile in the windrow to cure....
I've got 30 acres right next to the house that we seeded in Willow Creek forage winter wheat...Because of last winter being so open and dry- it grew really spotty, so we seeded some oats right over it... Now we have a field of 4' tall winter wheat heading out with shorter oats plants just about ready to head out...
The plan is to cut it in about a week or so (as soon as all the alfalfa and grass fields are cut) and then graze it in the fall...
As thick as the oats is amongst the Willow Creek- it looks like it should produce a good amount of hay...
 
Oats are tough as hell. You should get lots of regrowth, I'd leave it.
Good luck getting it up.
 
If you think you have enough growing time left. Put some roundup on it and plant sorgum in it ASAP. Will make good grazing if not enough height for hay. Oats regrowth has nitrates a lot of the time, but then again so does sorgum if it gets stressed. We just did the same thing with triticale we took off.
 
We've grazed ours twice so far done ai'ing so the cows are off we'll see what happens maybe get a hay cutting in august.
 
Have any of you sprayed it with round up to kill it,and then just left it to dry standing?Good or bad?
 
Sure makes nice feed baled at 40% and wrapped in plastic.
 
So had your oats dried enough to bale? I cut 80 acre field of triple crown oats last Sunday 25ft draper no conditioner and bottom of windrows still wet this noon ish. Just finished turning it so could get the rest dry enough. Probably be a freak thunder storm tonight! Cut it 62 days. Got 160 more acres that I'm gonna wait til it just starts to turn hoping it will dry quicker?
 

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