[AT] OT; Seed Oats

[Indiana Robinson]

The last oats I planted were for hay. I had bought seed oats from a
seed dealer before and they did well. I don't recall the variety. I
used the highly sophisticated process of picking a seed variety of
asking the seed guy "what is a good forage oat"...  :-) The last batch
I planted, maybe 20 acres, a few years ago, I just went to the grain
elevator and bought "oats".  :-)
I believe they did just as well as the pricey ones and were possibly
cleaner. I understand that they "may" have been from Canada. Another
elevator here told me that their oats were from Sweden.
Oats make great hay and hay eating critters just love it but it can be
pretty hard to convince hay customers (especially young horse owners)
that they will eat it and that it is good for them. I only baled them
after they headed out well but were still completely green. Probably
the biggest problem with it is tripping over all of those mice those
bales full of grain attract.  ;-)
-
Somebody has convinced half of the horse people around here that you
only feed horses alfalfa hay. Even worse you stick them in a tight
poorly ventilated stall for almost all of their time and pack so much
alfalfa and grain in them that they become nuts from having too much
energy and no way to use it up. Mine run pasture when ever they like
24-7 and 12 months of the year. They may look a little like woolly
mammoths right now but they are happy. :-)
-
Oats will do pretty well on poor soils but are heavy feeders. If you
bale them off soil testing for the next crop is pretty important.



-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com