Oats

[DieselRob]

I'm looking for a bit of education on growing oats, other than a few wild oats about the farm I've not had anything to do with them.

Winters or spring? If springs then they would go in behind a grazed catch crop, if winters would there be enough time to establish a meaningful cover crop pre drilling? When do you drill winters? Currently don't start drilling barley or wheat till the last week of Sept at the earliest. Although currently ploughing/min till establishment this is very likely to become direct drilling in the next couple of years

Yield potential? On medium land capable of wheat dog 10t+/ha in a "normal" year what could they likely do? Do they cope well on drought prone or very heavy land?

Weed control? Mainly under control here with a half boom width pre drilling or in wheat crop (Broadway etc) around field edges to keep brome/rye creeping in from field margins.

A conversation with an advisor I use today suggested contracts are available at £10 under Nov wheat futures, this sounds a lot better than sitting in a Traders breakfast meeting many years ago basically suggesting there was hardly a market for them.

Any thoughts and advice much appreciated

 

[Brisel]

The 2 main millers prefer winters but will use springs sometimes. Springs don't like a drought but oats are good scavengers of water and nutrients. No decent grass weed control options really but it is a competitive crop. Disease control is fairly cheap. Take care to keep them standing and cut them as soon as they are ripe.

 

[Colin]

The biggest Miller prefers springs but MIGHT use winters, it depends. Could be the replacement break crop instead of rape and will soon be overdone.

 

[teslacoils]

Springs here yield between 2 and 4t per acre. They are entirely feast or famine.

Haven't grown winters for ages.

Grassweed control is essentially non existent in springs and highly limited in winters. Great ploughing after winter oats.

 

[ollie989898]

Keeping them stood up can be tricky.

The dust from oats in the grain store... well... you'll find out soon enough.

 

[juke]

sweetheart someone at grainco for a contract is your first priority,

variety either mascani or gerald
weed control . half rate fff + dff , forget them if you have big grass weed pressure.

 

[DieselRob]

Where do they fit in the harvest schedule? We go from WB to WW here so if they slot in between those it would be handy... or am I going to be wanting to cut them at the same time as milling wheat?

 

[DieselRob]

sweetheart someone at grainco for a contract is your first priority,

variety either mascani or gerald
weed control . half rate fff + dff , forget them if you have big grass weed pressure.

My someone at grainco retired a couple of years back, never actually got round to selling him anything though, best make a phone call and find a new friend

 

[Brisel]

Where do they fit in the harvest schedule? We go from WB to WW here so if they slot in between those it would be handy... or am I going to be wanting to cut them at the same time as milling wheat?

Winter oats will clash with wheat. Spring oats are ripe from mid-late August but it varies with sowing date. I left mine until after the wheat because of storage logistics but found they started shedding grain and brackling over as soon as they were ripe.

 

[teslacoils]

Where do they fit in the harvest schedule? We go from WB to WW here so if they slot in between those it would be handy... or am I going to be wanting to cut them at the same time as milling wheat?

Variable. The nature of the plant means they dry out quicker than wheat after a shower, so for us we could always go get them after an inevitable damp August bank holiday while the wheat was still drying.