Oats are an ideal late summer green manure if your winters are cold enough to kill it; the dead residue forms its own winter mulch, which is usually well rotted by spring. When you squeeze a kernel, there should be no milky fluid left (its still in the milk stage then). Cut the oat grass stems with the plant heads intact, using a scythe or sickle. They may be left to dry on the floor or hung from the ceiling of a barn or porch. Harvesting oats is usually done by direct heading of standing grain as soon as the crop is ripe which will help reduce grain shedding. Oat should be swathed when kernel moisture content is between 30% to 36% to avoid negative impacts on groat yield and test weight (May et al 2005). It is better to swath early to prevent losses from shedding and lodging, but not when the ground is wet after rain. Warm climates tend to plant oats in the fall and harvest in midsummer. Starting in January 2021, Richardson will be tightly regulating which oats it accepts to ensure that tainted oats, like the kind used in […] So I guess that could compensate for their low yield. They also can be used for pasture; they can be grazed a while, then allowed to head out for grain production, or grazed continuously until other pastures are ready. The oats are planted in the spring of the year and cut and harvested for hay in the early summer. Winter oats may be grown as an off-season groundcover and ploughed under in the spring as a green fertilizer, or harvested in early summer. When the same oat cultivars were planted on July 15 th , all grain-type cultivars could be ensiled directly by October 1 st , but ForagePlus was not sufficiently dry until November 1 st (data not shown). High protein oat hay, cut during the boot stage, is fed to feeder cattle being fattened for slaughter. The harvested yield of oats forage increases rapidly with increasing maturity until early dough stage. I don't have any tractor equipment to harvest oats. Mid to late Spring is the time to harvest – I usually see the distinctive shape of the oat seed head come out in April and May (see photos). The oat crop is grown specifically for hay instead of harvested for grain. Oats grow to maturity in 60 days under ideal conditions. The bottom line is to get oats in early (it gets hot in Iowa, and oats are a cool season crop). Many oat growers spray glyphosate to … Harvesting and Storing. Oatstraw should be into half inch segments and dried thoroughly for teas and infusions. Harvest once the seed heads are dry. Think about how well they grow in Scotland and Ireland, both of which have oatmeal named for them. Have a laboratory test check the nitrate levels if the growing conditions for the oat crop are questionable. Statistics Canada forecast Canadian all-wheat production this year at 35,739,800 tonnes, up 11% from the 2019 outturn at 32,347,800 tonnes. Oats will be between 2 and 5 feet tall when they are mature. There are fungicide products you can use, as long as you aren’t spraying right before harvest time. Plus many of the fields are too small to get a tractor in so I had to do it all by hand. Tie the stalks into bunches with twine and let them dry for about two weeks in a location that is protected from rain. The leaves should be starting to turn brown, and the oat kernels should be in what is called the “dough” stage. You may use the grasses for forage and the cleaned oat heads for human food after you’ve processed the oats. I have 1m2 so I am curious to see how much I will harvest. Notes. This later harvesting results in much higher dry matter (DM) yields but of slightly lower energy and much lower crude protein levels than at the vegetative stage. To reduce harvesting delays the grain can be direct harvested at a moisture content above 12% and then placed under aeration to maintain quality or passed through a grain dryer to reduce its moisture content to a level that can be safely stored. Consider management of stubble for the succeeding crop (straw length and spreading) and collection of grass seed to reduce weeds in the next year. Oat hay is ideal for young livestock if cut when oats just begin to head out. This separates the stem of the plant from the oats. Although it may be easier to swath later, the swaths of a ripe crop may not interlock well enough to withstand disturbance from strong wind. Oats are mature when the stalk and seeds are gold and dry. The kernel should still be soft and easily dented with a fingernail. 3. The oat plants finally begins to grow in the spring when the weather is warmer. This oat hay produces a high protein feed suitable for cattle, horses and sheep. For baled hay the moisture content should be no more than 22 percent. Oatstraw can be harvested after immature oat tops are collected., by cutting the stem close to the ground. His works have appeared in regional newspapers in North Dakota and in "North Dakota Horizons" and "Cowboys and Indians" magazines. This may cause considerable delays to the harvesting operation and increase the risk of head loss or grain being discoloured by early summer rains. Harvest the grains when the stalks are just beginning to go from green to brown, using a scythe or other tool. Usage: as food for: horses, chaff for compost. I am also growing my oats for the 1st time, they seem to have all grains inside (they are hulless oats), but their yields seem to be fairly low. When harvesting mature seed by hand, this is most efficiently done by s process called threshing. Use a hay probe and moisture meter to test moisture, or take a sample to the county extension office. Growing oats without pre-harvest glyphosate can be risky because rain in late August and early September can damage the quality of the crop. The lower protein feeds work best for dairy or breeding cattle operations. The process of harvesting oats a century ago was an equally grim prospect. After that, the animals will produce manure. Harvesting . Farmers can feed the oat hay immediately or store it … Cut them just above the ground. If a mower is used, a farm rake is then employed to form the windrows. The boot stage occurs when you can feel a lump near the end of the stem. Hay balers compress the hay into round or square forms that are wrapped in twine for transportation and storage. Our Garden Planner can produce a personalised calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area. This is the most economical method if the grain moisture is uniform (less than 12%). Richardson International, the largest agribusiness company in Canada, has announced that it will no longer be accepting any oat crops from companies that spray their pre-harvest crops with glyphosate as a desiccant. They were planted very densely. Don’t wait to harvest until the kernels are hard or you will likely lose a lot of grain. Oats have numerous uses in food; most commonly, they are rolled or crushed into oatmeal, or ground into fine oat flour. Oats are a cool-weather crop and don’t mind cloudy, rainy weather. Below is a video I took showing the process for all of this. Monitor the oat crop for the proper harvest time. Pete cutting down the straw with my Dad's 100+ year old scythe. Check the moisture content of the oat hay. Oats , I like to lay them down soon after headed out , if you let them go to long they will produce too much seed, which dont hurt if you are grinding them into a feed ration. … University of California Davis: When to Cut Oats; Marsha Campbell Mathews; Nov. 5, 1999, North Dakota State University: Oats as a Feed for Beef Cattle; LaDon Johnson and Stephen Boyles; Oct. 1991, University of California Cooperative Extension: Sample Costs to Produce Oat Hay; Rachel Long, et al; 2005, University of Missouri Extension: Making and Storing Quality Hay; Jimmy Henning and Howell Wheaton; Oct. 1993. Oats, like wheat, should be planted in the spring and fall. These conditions include extreme stress on the oat plant such as hail or drought. A shortened version of the URL, helpful when communicating the URL over email or verbally. You can cut the stalks anywhere along the length, but the higher up you cut, the less straw you’ll have to deal with when you are threshing. shriveled oats with little potential for both germination and nutrition. Page last updated: Tuesday, 1 May 2018 - 1:39pm, Oats: harvesting, swathing and grain storage, Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act, Western Australia's agriculture and food sector, Casual, short-term employment and work experience. Harvest your oats when you expect at least 24 to 48 hours of rain-free weather. Young oats can be turned under anytime. A sharp knife or garden sickle will work fine. Or you can increase yield by about one-third and cut oats in the early milk stage for hay that's excellent for stock cows. For lactating dairy cattle, oat forages should be harvested as the first grain heads appear in a field (late boot stage). Hull-less oats are susceptible to harvest damage, adjustment to the harvest is therefore critical. Harvest and Storage. Oat hay is a harvested forage or feed of stalks, leaves and heads from oat crop rather from grass or alfalfa. As oats are evaluated by processors for milling quality, the important characteristics of good oats are generally high test weight, bright groat color, high groat percent, low oil content, and high protein and beta-glucan content.