Oat Hay

[Nathan]

Does any one have any experience with making oat hay?

 

[mitchwi]

Nathan - Not clear on your question... Whenever we re-seed in new alfalfa fields, the cover crop we use is oats. So, when it is time for the first cutting, usually around the time of 2nd crop for established fields, we cut the oats just as the seed heads are starting to come out, usually about 20%. The oats have a hollow stem so there isn't as much there when it comes to baling as what it looked like when it was mowed. The animals LOVE the oat hay. We just went through a couple of weeks feeding oat hay, just because thats where it was in the hay piles.

 

[novaman]

We make oat hay every year. We usually cut it when the kernals are in the soft dough stage but cutting it earlier as mitch suggested would give you higher protein. It does make good feed and we usually get pretty decent yields. There are two problems that I have with oat hay. The first is the hulls coming off and getting into the eyes of the cows. The second problem is nitrates. Oats is quite susceptible to having high nitrate content especially if you over-fertilize or have a drought or hail storm or something to slow the growth of the plant.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Oats hay can be good feed. The issues are cutting it early enough to keep the protein up and getting it to dry. The protein level drops pretty fast after the heads emerge. Since it is prone to heating so some folks chop it for haylage.

On new alfalfa seeding in the upper mid west- - you can get one or even two additional cuttings of hay that year if you cut the oats off soon enough.