[AT] OT; Seed Oats

[charliehill]

Farmer, down here in the Southeast most horse people will only feed coastal 
bermuda hay and oats or sweet feed.  Alfalfa is considered to be too rich 
and is fed sparingly as extra nutrition or to horses that have specific need 
for it.   Funny how cost and availability changes peoples attitudes about 
what is "right".


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] OT; Seed Oats


> 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
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