Latest drilling date for Mascani oats

Green oak

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
mine are still in the shed. Seed bed dry and cloddy. Should I really put them in. First time oat grower. Give me some pointers please.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
mine are still in the shed. Seed bed dry and cloddy. Should I really put them in. First time oat grower. Give me some pointers please.
Dont plant too deep because oats have a fixed meristem length, unlike wheat which still does fine planted 4" down away from the crows.
 

Roy_H

Member
The rep from C.W.G. ( Now Mole Valley Farmers ) told us one of his customers always liked to drill his winter oats in February (A bit of a gamble I should think considering that month's fill-dyke reputation!). Apparently it all began when the above farmer couldn't get his winter oats drilled one autumn due to the weather breaking up so he put them in when the weather finally improved (Which was the following February, his son thought he was totally crazy, but the dressed seed was there waiting in the bag, so what could they do? ) and it turned out to be the best crop of oats he had ever grown, so the habit stuck.
 

Gone Shooting

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
hereford
As above we planted in march but in a very good seedbed - need to glpho them off before harvest to even them out and all ok - did just on 3ton/acre and few sprays.
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
Is not better to wait until early spring now? I heard they can suffer frost lift if planted to late in autumn?

They can suffer from frost lift but you do need a decent frost for it to be a problem, something we haven’t had for quite a few years although I’m expecting one this year to control slug numbers ( nature has a habit of equalling things up ). If you drill Oats shallow you’ll increase the chance of frost lift and as a previous poster suggested you shouldn’t go too deep but 50mm would be OK. Personally I’d wait until conditions are good, anytime up until mid April, maybe later but you’d risk a later harvest.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
Just discussed this with agronomist actually.
They conducted trial with both winter and spring oats, in both late autumn and spring drilling situations.
In all situations the springs did out yield the winters by varying degrees, with the big proviso that there was hardly any winter weather to potentially kill the autumn drilled spring oats plot.
So it seems that winters will do fine drilled right through if you already have the seed; but if you actually plan to drill very late or in spring due to BG pressure, spring oats would be better plan.
Also, spring drilled winter oats can tend to be lower bushel weights than if planted in autumn.
 

bankrupt

Member
Location
EX17/20
spring drilled winter oats can tend to be lower bushel weights than if planted in autumn.

And, somewhat perversely, David, will grow longer straw which can be very difficult to manage.

But planting in the spring will certainly increase winter oat yields where oat mosaic virus is a factor.
 

Dman2

Member
Location
Durham, UK
No
Regularly get those yields here with oats
Not this year with Frontiers winter spring mix though
Good oat land here, they heavier ground
Very rarely get those yields with wheat
 

puntabrava

Member
Location
Wiltshire
I have a farmer that has 70 ha of the bloody things, having avoided baling oats for the last 15 years, I suppose the straw is still stalky shiny nobody likes it material?
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
No
Regularly get those yields here with oats
Not this year with Frontiers winter spring mix though
Good oat land here, they heavier ground
Very rarely get those yields with wheat
I got better yields with Gerald than Mascani but the quality of Mascani give me a comfortable BW rather than a borderline one, on an average year. It's shame that markets, wild oats and grass weeds have reduced their useful acreage for me, as they are a fairly easy crop to grow.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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