M-J-G
Member
Who is growing and/or feeding them.
Pros/cons?
Worth growing them in a mixed livestock and arable situation?
TIA.
Pros/cons?
Worth growing them in a mixed livestock and arable situation?
TIA.
Feeding Oats
- Thread starter M-J-G
- Start date
- Location
- Mendips Somerset
almost do the same job as SBP but a lot cheaper ,(often half the price ) a good fibre source ,with energy in the form of starch , cheap to grow , they can still blow on them at the start but safer than barley or wheat , good in a 3 in 1 feeder . they wont usually finish on them as well but good for keeping them ticking along on grass ,
- Location
- West Wales
We’ve always grown oats after a crop of SBarley, usually undersown so we have a 6 year ley straight after and the oats protects the ley from the weather usually.
Feed wise, stock do on it, don’t ask why, it’s a warm feed like porridge is..
we feed the rams a handful of oats in the winter and they look very good on it.
Usually we only feed twin/triplet ewes 1lb of 50/50 oats/barley before lambing.
I would say cheap to grow but we’re organic so similar cost to barley..
In regards to arable rotation, it’s a break crop from cereals effectively and reduces the risk of take all in a wheat barley wheat rotation. Good crops of straw - selling it if you grow a lot of it could be hard - check with your mills if they take it if you couldn’t feed your whole acreage. It’ll also grow on poorer ground than barley.
Feed wise, stock do on it, don’t ask why, it’s a warm feed like porridge is..
we feed the rams a handful of oats in the winter and they look very good on it.
Usually we only feed twin/triplet ewes 1lb of 50/50 oats/barley before lambing.
I would say cheap to grow but we’re organic so similar cost to barley..
In regards to arable rotation, it’s a break crop from cereals effectively and reduces the risk of take all in a wheat barley wheat rotation. Good crops of straw - selling it if you grow a lot of it could be hard - check with your mills if they take it if you couldn’t feed your whole acreage. It’ll also grow on poorer ground than barley.
Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
Much better than barley for calves and lambs, less acidic
John Chance
Member
We grow and feed whole. Safe. Get good DLWG in weaned calves over winter fed ad lib.
Would straight oats be suitable to supplement in lamb ewes up to a 2 or 3 weeks before lambing?
Previously I have been using topflock forage booster buckets (CP16% and ME 10) but these are costing to much.
They will usually be housed up to 8 weeks before lambing and on reasonably good silage. (Silage will be tested closer to the time)
I think I read somewhere that @exmoor dave may have some experience in this too?
- Location
- South Wales UK
Sheep love them
Easy to grow.
Good crop of grain and straw with W Oats.
Easy to grow.
Good crop of grain and straw with W Oats.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Yeah feed loads of whole oats through 3-1 feeders either mixed with creep pellets or protein pellets for lambs
Or themselves or mixed with ewe cake for ewes pre/post lambing
So do you start out with oats only for ewes and then gradually add cake as you approach lambing? How much do you feed per ewe when oats only?
Grew a Finnish variety I think it was a few years ago. Mixed in with barley & 25% the cattle had an extra shine that winter, struggle for room to keep separate from barley so haven’t repeated. Geese don’t go for the growing crop like they do barley I believe!
Or were they a Swedish variety, can’t quite remember!
Or were they a Swedish variety, can’t quite remember!
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Feb lambing twin ewes go straight on to mix about 3 weeks pre-lambing at housing.
April ewes have whole oats from 4-8 wks pre lambing depending on the grass situation.
Amount is 200-500g/day again depending on grass situation.
Fed a lot this year during/After the snow.
Previous year hardly fed any.
Used to use crystalyx buckets and rumivite blocks but both are now silly money
Thanks @exmoor dave. I think I will try something similar with my ewes and cut out the buckets as much as possible.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Just watch that grain prices have jumped a fair bit..... I couldn't even get oats off mole valley last week!
But saying that buckets will almost continue their annual price increase
Perhaps only relevant for cattle but this interesting article was in the Irish Independent the other day re. oats vs barley in a ration for beef cattle:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....ut-hitting-performance-research-37231923.html
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....ut-hitting-performance-research-37231923.html
harperfarmer
Member
We've grown/fed oats for as long as I can remember. We put about 40 acres in the pit as wholecrop to feed to dry sucklers as it produces a lot of bulk per acre and generally analyses at a suitable CP/ME/D value for feeding that class of stock. Usually get the chopper driver to cut it as long as he can without taking blades out. We feed a lot to ewes pre and post lambing. Around 700kg/tonne with the difference made up with barley, molasses and mineralised soya. We then add the same mix to lamb creep pellets and makes it a lot easier on the pocket. I have tried feeding whole oats to calves in creep feeders but found they nose too many out of the troughs which in turn attracted a lot of rooks/jackdaws etc. For this reason, despite the expert advice saying they don't need it, we tend to roll them before mixing with anything else as they seem keener to just eat them rather than nose them about. Regards the arable benefits, they are a break crop for cereals so very useful in that respect as they provide a straw yielding break which is handy for a mixed livestock farm. This is the main reason we have always grown them. However in recent times we have reduced our acreage as there is next to no reasonable blackgrass control in oats and fields can soon get in a mess. We tend to pick our cleanest fields for oats, and of those, wholecrop those with the most blackgrass and combine the remainder. They are cheap to grow and will routinely give 3t/acre grain and 2t/acre straw. Freshweight wholecrop yields can be up to 14t/acre but on average I would budget on 10t/acre. Whilst good straw yields are useful, the straw itself isn't as good for bedding as wheat straw as it's quite waxy/shiny and less absorbent as a result. I would always recommend a growth regulator as combining flat oats is a God forsaken task and they will get some serious height if not applied. As a guide on value we recently sold some excess for £155/tonne. The majority goes into breakfast cereal as far as I'm aware.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
Interesting post thankyou, ive been considering growing oats myself for whole crop, do you grow winter or spring and roughly back of fag packet costs are their too growing them ? tia
harperfarmer
Member
We grow winter oats as find them a lot more reliable than spring crops (plus usually too busy lambing/calving in spring). Regarding costs I will look back over them and let you know. They are fairly cheap to grow plus for the wholecrop acres we dont usually bother dressing the seed. Just take it straight out of the heap but put it on a bit thicker at 70-75kg/acre. I'll get back to you on more accurate costings
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
When do winter oats have to be planted by ?
Skintagain
Member
- Location
- Perched on the Pennines
Would oats and brewers grains work for sheep 50 50 with minerals. Growing lambs or cull ewes?
- Tags
- maize