Winter Pasture Turn out: Nov 1st

[OK Jeanne]

Yipee! Turn-out for winter pasture!








The pictured section is oats.

[TexasBred]

Now that is just downright beautiful. You'll have some green butted cattle tomorrow.

[HerefordSire]

What does the economics look like with grazing oats versus alternatives?

[bigbull338]

now thats 1 heck of a winter pasture.better watch out for the squirts.calves will grow like weeds grazing that stuff.

[talldog]

Looks mighty good to me !!!!!!!!

[OK Jeanne]

What does the economics look like with grazing oats versus alternatives?

Part of the pasture is in wheat & part in oats. I think they like the oats best; it's a wider leaf. At around 5-10degrees the top of the
oat plant will get brown/frozen off---but it comes back with a warm-up. Wheat is more winter resistant. I don't recall that the
price of the seed was much different. However the best oats we have ever had was the winter after we applied lime in the fall---then used
"Heavy Grazier" variety from East Texas seed co. It was a much more expensive variety. We didn't have enough animals on it, and it
started heading out in mid-December. It was the first and only time that we baled hay on Jan 1st.

[MO_cows]

That's a beautiful stand of green stuff. Lucky cattle!

[Hereford76]

if you hadn't posted a picture of that i'd never believe it. can you explain your operation more.

those pictures are dated 11/1/2009 and you said that is part oats/part winter wheat (but separate right). so when was is sown? when will those cattle come off there and then what - you combine the wheat and oats and if so what month. that just looks crazy to me. we live in the golden triangle of montana (wheat country) and i've never seen winter wheat like that before it froze. what kind of yields do you typically have. did you say what varieties they are - farmers around here have their own varities for drought tolerance and saw fly resistance. have you ever had winter wheat boot before it froze or do you make sure and graze it hard.

i don't know but my cows would think they had died and gone to heaven. pretty neat

[Douglas]

What does the economics look like with grazing oats versus alternatives?

The advantage of oats is that you can plant them earlier and are more are drought tolerant than other annuals. Disadvantage is not cold tolerant.
The primary use of oats is fall grazing or haying as nothing will be left in spring.
Also if planted after June they will not produce seed but have a unfertilized flower.
According to a lot or research at OSU, bin run oats perform as well as seed oats.
I planted oats the first week of Aug and they are waist deep now. I will use it like stockpiled fecue. I sowed 2 1/5 bushel to the acre at a cost of $7.50 acre.

http://beef.osu.edu/beef/graze/wntrgraz.htm

[OK Jeanne]

if you hadn't posted a picture of that i'd never believe it. can you explain your operation more.

those pictures are dated 11/1/2009 and you said that is part oats/part winter wheat (but separate right). so when was is sown? when will those cattle come off there and then what - you combine the wheat and oats and if so what month. that just looks crazy to me. we live in the golden triangle of montana (wheat country) and i've never seen winter wheat like that before it froze. what kind of yields do you typically have. did you say what varieties they are - farmers around here have their own varities for drought tolerance and saw fly resistance. have you ever had winter wheat boot before it froze or do you make sure and graze it hard.

i don't know but my cows would think they had died and gone to heaven. pretty neat

My sweetie planted about Sept 10th. There's about 60 acres of useable bottom land---a creek runs through the middle of the 80 acre parcel.
Three bulls that are 1 1/2 yrs old are on it, and the weaned bull calves---weaned Oct 10th. The weaned heifers we put in regular
pasture---don't want them to put on huge amounts of fat . He planted about 15 acres with oats and the rest with wheat. We will
graze it all winter, take the animals off about March 1st, then make hay in early May. The oats have never all frozen out. They will
get bit back in a bad winter, but come back when it warms. We've never had the wheat (nor rye) boot out, but that one variety of oats
did. He also drilled some hilltop pasture with the oats. He uses a no-till pasture drill. It was almost 80 degrees here today and forecast
a little warmer tomorrow. It is about 10 degrees above average. I still have tomatoes on the vine---and a couple of roses blooming.

He planted "Bob" oats and "Jager" wheat.

We usually have have our beef steers on that field at this time of year---to be ready for the butcher in late Jan-early Feb. But this coming
season we are not producing any beef.

[bigbull338]

dont the oats freeze out an die pretty quick.we planted 20acs of oats here in north east tx years ago.an they froze out an died with our 1st hard freeze.

[OK Jeanne]

dont the oats freeze out an die pretty quick.we planted 20acs of oats here in north east tx years ago.an they froze out an died with our 1st hard freeze.

If the oats were planted very late, and did not get a good root structure before very very cold weather, they might freeze out.

In the past years, our annual frost date here was Nov 10th and last frost April 10th. We try to get a very good stand with good
roots well before that.

[1982vett]

OK Jeanne, really some nice looking oats. I'm proud to have some this year that is doing well too. A real eye opener when you essentially have a failure (last year).

Here is my exibit so far:

Planted September 21st about 11 acres. Rained 1 1/2 inches that night. Turned in yesterday morning.


Next chance to plant came September 30. Got 27 acres planted this time.


Third chance to plant, other than pasture drilling in hay meadows came yesterday. Got another 13 acres in. Supposed to rain Sunday. The last 35 acres is still to wet to do anything with.

Huge difference from last year




That was rough.

[LazyARanch]

Good looking pasture and GREAT looking stock Ok Jeanne!

[Sean M]

Great looking cattle Jean, I liked OK Buttercup. Strange looking thing though, it looks like ate one of it's calves