Oats and Rye Planting Questions

[Brute 23]

If I am planting an oats and rye grass mix, how do you calculate the settings on the planter?

The book for this Great Plains no-till says around a 50 setting will give you #30 of oats per acre.
It also says a 5 setting will give you #10 of rye grass per acre.

Will a 55 setting give me that #60 per acre total if I mix it in the hopper at that ratio? Doesn't have to be exact, but fairly close would be good.


Next question.
Seed supplier recommended #75-100 per acre of oats and #25 per ac of rye grass. The said if I was going to mix them to do #75 oats and #25 rye per acre.

That's seems like a lot of seed? #100 to the acre total for a no-till drill? Broadcasting I could see that maybe but seemed a little on the high side to me.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Nesikep]

When we do cover crop oats or barley, we do about 40 lb/ac.. If seeding for a grain harvest, we do about 60-70 lb... 100 lb/acre does sound like a whole lot... It is logical that he wants to sell you seed! A lot will depend on the germination conditions, if you're expecting good germination (we irrigate to get the results), I think our rate may be sufficient, if you'd going to have less germination, you'll need to increase the rate proportionally, so perhaps 100 is OK.

Since the ryegrass is a small seed, I think it may not affect the oat seeding rate much at all, I'd go a smidge above what the recommended setting is for your target on the oats... I have no experience with that drill, but if a 50 setting is 30 lb/ac of oats, you're going to have to open it way up to get anywhere close to 100 lb/ac..

 

[1982vett]

When I've mixed the two I've just opened up a notch or two. Ryegrass sort of fits in the spaces around the oat seed. For existing pastures I've used 35 lbs oats with 10 lbs ryegrass with decent results. (Rainfall being the key factor). For prepared ground I used to use 100 lbs oats and 15 ryegrass. I've gone to 75 lbs oats now that maximum forage tonnage isn't my goal. ( more plants per ft require more fertilizer and moisture)... I rely on my ryegrass to reseed itself for the most part.

 

[Brute 23]

Thank yall. Sounds reasonable.

I found some articles on the enet recommending the same thing the seed place did.

 

[wacocowboy]

You plant oats at 3-4 bushels an acre a bushel of oats is 32 lbs and do 10 lbs an acre on your rye. I am planting 10 acres of oats and rye and I am getting between 30-40 bushels of oats and 100 lbs of rye grass seeds. I always do the math since I buy my oats in bulk I never get exactly the amount of oats I need always a lil more so I just divide the pounds by my 10 acres. Then set my drill for lbs of oats an acre if you open it to much trying to figure in the rye you will run out of seed before you are done. I sometimes end up with a lil extra and I just go back over spots till I am empty.

 

[Jacob]

I feel like a rather have a good stand so we don't skimp on seed. We also do 75lbs oats 25lbs rye and 15lbs rye grass. We mix the rye and oats in the great plain drill we just purchased. We will spread the rye grass with furtilizer in a spreader as we don't want to mix with the oats and rye because it will be to deep. My farm Hand sent me the below information concerning the setting on our drill

For this mixture of 75 lbs oats and 25 lbs rye we have decided gear ratio setting 4 and seed box setting 37 is about right.

 

[polledbull]

set the drill for the amount of oats you want , add the rye in the drill and mix, the rate will be good for the oats as by the setting and the rye will be there as well, we do this every year with rye and rye grass,

 

[Brute 23]

Thanks

Got it all planted. That no-till drill is pretty slick. Now just need some rain.

 

[1982vett]

Thanks

Got it all planted. That no-till drill is pretty slick. Now just need some rain.

My oats are up but the ryegrass is having a tough time. I think it's still a little to hot and definitely could use some rain.

 

[Brute 23]

It's kind of tricky this time of year. There are a lot of oats needing rain but a lot of people are getting their last cutting of hay. Bet their are a lot of mixed prayers to the man up stairs.