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oats in the milk stage

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
i planted oats for a cover crop for my alfalfa mix hay field now the oats are coming to head how long will they stay in the milk stage.my plan was to cut them for hay befor they went to seed but there getting ready and it wont stop raining what should i do.
thanks RICK
 
Get someone who is producing baleage locally to come and round bale it for their own use or for sale. If you cut and rake, it will minimize scheduling concerns for them.
 
i have a round and square baler its just waiting for it to dry up enough to get in and cut it before the oats go to seed no one around here has a combine.isnt much i can do till the weather changes.
RICK
 
They'll still be OK for a week or two after it stops raining- they won't harden off until they get some sun and heat. Just cut as soon as you see a window of good weather.
 
Problem you're going to run into is that grain in the milk stage is going to stay wet when the leaves and stems are dry. You're gonna have some heavy,wet,sweaty bales. I've baled them that way and let them get dry enough to combine,then cut them with the haybine and baled them. Having done both,if it was me,I'd let them ripen,then cut them and bale them. They'll keep better and the ripe oats will have plenty of protein.
 
I agree with letting it get beyond the milk stage; never cut any oats for hay, but I've cut plenty of wheat..........always wanted to cut it in the hard dough stage. Out of all the hay I ever cut (and fed), the absolute highest in TDN was some wheat that was ready to harvest. It was about 40 acres that I didn't get a good wild garlic kill and it also had some annual ryegrass. I figured I would lose a lot of the grain, but cut it with a disc mower and lost very little........baled in 6 x 5 bales.
 
ric1, IMO,,,Here in Central Texas, Most folks I know prefer to cut in late milk to very early dough! The thought in that is, most of us do not want it to get even close to grain stage for if it does go long before you cut due to rain or wet ground it just shatters tooooo much when baled. We would rather keep all we can in the bale and not on the ground.
Also If you try to keep hay over for next year...hay with grain will become rat and mice infested and you wind up feeding the local population of rodents. And that hay becomes pretty much junk!!!
Just how it is done here though, practices vary from region to region. Hope this helps!
Later,
John A.
 
(quoted from post at 14:46:47 06/13/10) I agree with letting it get beyond the milk stage; never cut any oats for hay, but I've cut plenty of wheat..........always wanted to cut it in the hard dough stage. Out of all the hay I ever cut (and fed), the absolute highest in TDN was some wheat that was ready to harvest.
Click to expand...

I disagree as it's an established fact that the closer to maturity any crop gets the lower the TDN & RFV it gets and this includes small grains. This can be verified with any AG University.

Back before I put all my land in grass I did bale oats and tried to cut them in the early milk stage. Cut in dough stage the seeds will still harden and attract rodents.
 
Jim.........can't argue with you; just going by the test results. When I had any doubts about the feed value, I'd pull a couple of samples and the local extension service would send them to the University of Tennessee lab.
 
I'm in the same boat. My oats should have been cut a week ago, but as it is right now, not only couldn't I get it dry enough for balage, I couldn't even get in the field to cut it without making ruts. Just going to have to wait out the weather and take what I can get. If you can have someone wrap round bales in plastic for you (either balage or dry hay), that will keep the rodents out. I remember one year we had squares of oat hay in the barn and the mice it it so bad, that it was nothing but a straw pile by the time we fed it out. The little buggers even ate the twines off the bales.
 

tjdub
That's some of hazards of raising oats for hay especially if one wants to sq bales but rodents will also attack rd bales. If sq baling doing it if weather allows before dough stage helps deter rodents.
 
(quoted from post at 09:18:58 06/14/10) Jim.........can't argue with you; just going by the test results. When I had any doubts about the feed value, I'd pull a couple of samples and the local extension service would send them to the University of Tennessee lab.
Click to expand...

Just curious what was the TDN or RFV of your headed out wheat hay?
 
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