Wheat after oats

[dontknowanything]

I thought our wheat after oats looked quite good this year, until the spring. Then it started looking looking rough. We are now harvesting the fields, after winter oats we got 6.5t/ha, and it's looking similar on the spring oats. The HLW is way down in the mid 60s, about 10kg less than the comparable non-oat fields around them.

We cut the stubble very high, and drilled with a tine. This hasn't worked, and I have another two oat fields to drill with wheat this year, what should I do?

I'm thinking probably a light discing? I could bake the spring oat straw, the winters have already been cut? Will either of these have a chance of working, I thought in conventional systems wheat after oats was meant to be good?

 

[PSQ]

I thought in conventional systems wheat after oats was meant to be good?

It is, but you need to plough down the copious amounts of slowly decomposing straw to avoid denitrification in the rooting layer through the entire growing season.

 

[dontknowanything]

It is, but you need to plough down the copious amounts of slowly decomposing straw to avoid denitrification in the rooting layer through the entire growing season.

Someone did suggest autumn N

 

[PSQ]

About 32.5 kg of Urea dissolved in water per tonne of straw, sprayed on to the stubble, apparently...

 

[Tractor Boy]

Why is oat straw so much more of a problem than chopped wheat or barley then?

 

[Wigeon]

I've got 50ha of spring oats going into wheat and am now worried! I'd rather not bale the straw, but perhaps it's the only option? (Apart from ploughing, which we certainly won't do)

 

[mikep]

I believe it's not the straw but is the chaff that's the real problem. Read an interesting article (which I can no longer find) where small amounts of oat chaff were added to plant pots and wheat planted it was amazing how little chaff made a difference to the health of the plants. May be part of the reason that the straw from an oat cover crop does not seem to affect the next crop

 

[Farmer Roy]

biggest problem when people went zero till here in the 80's / 90's was lack of N - we used to get a lot of mineralised N from all the cultivations. General experience was higher N rates in first few years, then after the system gained some sort of balance & increased soil biology & organic matter, N rates have been reducing
Not sure if applicable to your situation, just some reflections of 30 or so years zero till experience here . . .

 

[Spud]

Whhooaaa, all this blathering N on to decompose straw Get it baled!!! Turn it into either ££ or fym. Make sure your chaff spreader is set up correctly. Problem solved.

 

[Farmer Roy]

once again, talking about long term experiences here, while not being familiar with your situation . . .

zero till here ONLY REALLY works with sufficient ground cover & retention of crop residues
the differences here ( in OUR climate ) can be as extreme as getting a crop or not . . .

ive seen first hand examples ( in my capacity contract planting on a number of farms ) during drought where people have baled straw for a short term income, but it has always come back & bitten them on the bum next year with reduced moisture, increased compaction, loss of nutrients . . .

baling does tend to produce a lot of wheel traffic & compaction, most compaction is not visible ( only the wheel tracks ) but tends to develop deeper, in the root zone

 

[Farmer Roy]

ps - decomposed oat straw does wonderful stuff to your soil, in my mind far more valuable than a handful of silver . . .

 

[Robert]

I thought our wheat after oats looked quite good this year, until the spring. Then it started looking looking rough. We are now harvesting the fields, after winter oats we got 6.5t/ha, and it's looking similar on the spring oats. The HLW is way down in the mid 60s, about 10kg less than the comparable non-oat fields around them.

We cut the stubble very high, and drilled with a tine. This hasn't worked, and I have another two oat fields to drill with wheat this year, what should I do?

Over the last 6 years we have not had a problem with Wheat after Spring Oats and it has often done as well as wheat after OSR. We don't bale the straw but do favour using our Claydon (7" 'A Share' though front leg always shallow) rather than the 750A. Maybe this is enough trash clearance and mineralisation to make the difference compared to your ULD tine? They tend to look a bit shy until March but then fill in nicely.

 

[franklin]

We are now harvesting the fields, after winter oats we got 6.5t/ha, and it's looking similar on the spring oats. The HLW is way down in the mid 60s

ps - decomposed oat straw does wonderful stuff to your soil, in my mind far more valuable than a handful of silver . . .

If the OP cuts some wheat after beans and gets 3t/ha more, then I dont think he will have the same attitude to the wonderful bit of rotted oat straw.

Could always follow oats with something that isnt wheat....

 

[dontknowanything]

In the winter oat field last year we sprayed off about a hectare in May since there was too much BG in it. This patch has yielded ~9t/ha this year, so around 3t/ha more than the area which had oats harvested.

 

[Breakthru]

Why is oat straw so much more of a problem than chopped wheat or barley then?

Lignin content, much slower to break down. Lots of very shiny straw that makes a huge carpet that is slow to breakdown IMHO.

 

[juke]

If your drilling into oats leave the stubble as long as you dare chop the rest n use a drill that acts as a row cleaner like a claydon, fantastic followimg crop of wheat .n brilliant weed suppression from the chopped straw we found in one our experiments. Herbicide use was minimal.

 

[Louis Mc]

drill a cover crop in between the oats and the wheat.
The last two years we've have very good results drilling with a disc into chopped winter oat straw. I'm putting the success down partially to the cover crop. Straw was nearly gone by time we drilled the wheat.

Crops look awful all winter but it's now one of our best looking crops

 

[Spud]

drill a cover crop in between the oats and the wheat.
The last two years we've have very good results drilling with a disc into chopped winter oat straw. I'm putting the success down partially to the cover crop. Straw was nearly gone by time we drilled the wheat.

Crops look awful all winter but it's now one of our best looking crops

What was your cover crop of choice @Louis Mc ?

 

[Louis Mc]

What was your cover crop of choice @Louis Mc ?

Mustard, phacelia, sunflowers, vetch buckwheat.

 

[Clive]

A light pass with a carrier might be wise, then use tine machine and some N at establishment plus early N in the spring

I have a similar situation this year establishing quite a lot of wheat after oats, i've sold the straw which will also help

Oat straw is the devil in a zero till system IMO