[AT] OT Hay question

[toma]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Dean Vinson wrote:

> Cecil, I'd like to chime in with another Eastern-guy "huh?" question.   What 
> is "oat hay" or "wheat hay"?   All my experience with hay is in baling 
> alfalfa or timothy or whatever mix of grass and leftover stragglers of past 
> alfalfa happened to be in my dad's fields.  And all my experience with baling 
> oats or wheat is in picking up the straw left behind by the combine, nice 
> bedding but nothing the cows would eat.   Do you just bale it green and use 
> the whole thing for feed, young grain and all?

Where I am here on the central coast of California is Oat country. Oats 
was grown here primarily for seed. Alfalfa won't grow here near the coast 
so most planted hay is cut from Oats, sometimes Oats and Vetch. For some 
reason Wheat has never been grown here commercially although I grew some 
back in the '90's and it did well.

When cut for hay Oats is cut in the milk stage. After it heads out and 
when the grain is squeezed between the fingers and a little milk squirts 
out. One family here used to cut it in the dough stage, by then the stalks 
have tuned a golden color. When cut in the milk stage the stalks are still 
green with a little red.

There seems to be quite a bit of latitude in when to cut. Ours was in the 
milk for a while before we cut it. I was afraid it might rain so we held 
off for a while. I planted it on a cousins place and they were happy to 
have us plant it just to keep the brush down. They are great hunters so we 
left a corner behind for rent. Deer love oats and they may get some bucks 
out of there. The oats I left behind is still in the milk and it is 2 
weeks since we cut. As I said it is cool climate here, that is probably 
why oats does so well here, it has a long time to fill.