| Dear
Jeff,
I enjoyed your oats article.
I too am an "oaty,” as I have between one-sixth
and one-fifth of my rotation in oats every year (that doesn't
count the acres of oats used as cover crops). You mentioned
many good things that I also love about oats, including the
option to cover crop following them.
I find some additional benefits:
Planting the cover with the oats--usually clover--which
will become a thick nutrient-laden mass to either plow down
for a fall grain crop or leave intact until the following
spring (really good for soil structure).
Reaping the soil-healing benefits of growing oats--good
for structure, biology and mineral release.
Enjoying the rotational punch of oats. According to most
rotational guidelines, oats are a good predecessor for any
other crop (and they can follow almost any other crop…except
oats).
Oats give me an opportunity to control Canada thistle
patches. When they reach bud stage and are visible above
the oats--usually when the oats are in the boot--I drive
around the field with my tractor and rotary mower and grind
them down to the ground. The thistle reserves are depleted,
the clover underseed takes over, and the thistles are choked
out for the year. Every season the patches get smaller.
While the thistle patches look big from the road, the actual
mowed acreage is usually less than 1 percent to 2 percent
of a field.
My major oat frustration? The emerging organic livestock
industry seems enamored of conventional livestock's corn/soy
formula. Inclusion of oats in dairy, beef, swine and poultry
rations would benefit the animals as well as allow organic
farmers to include more marvelous oats in their rotations!
Congratulations on your oat market! It's difficult to reach
that level in our neck of the woods.
(Questions follow
with Jeff's answers)
Thanks for providing a good and realistic organic farmers’
resource.
Best regards,
John C. Simmons
OCIA certified organic farmer
North Branch, Michigan
Dear John,
I took your questions one-by-one. Hope this helps:
Q: What is
a common test weight for your oat production?
A: We have
been very fortunate to always have oats in the 34- to 36-pound
range. Our oats are seldom the brightest since we are in
a humid area. But they are clean, relatively heavy and of
good overall quality.
Q: Your favorite
varieties?
A: I used
to plant ‘Ogle’ oats since I had seen a study
from Cornell University that showed Ogle to have the highest
allelopathic effect of all the varieties tested. Then I
tried ‘Blaze’ oats; they yielded better and
seemed to have all the agronomic qualities I was looking
for, so I've been planting that variety.
Q: Yellow
or white?
A: Yellow
Q: Do you
save and use your own seed?
A: Not as
a general rule, only because I don't have the best storage
facility on-site. I do save some seed for cover cropping
and to insure that I have something to plant, if for some
reason I run out of seed and have a small area to plant.
Q: What is
your planting rate in bu/acre?
A: As a rule
I plant oats at 3 bu/acre.
Q: Does mustard
give you any trouble?
A: Not in
the past 8 to 10 years. It used to be more of a problem
but for whatever reason I just don't see it much anymore.
That being said, it will probably show up this year just
to prove it's still around.
Jeff
Dear Jeff,
Thanks for the reply.
I've been growing Porter oats, a public variety I compared
and selected almost 10 years ago. It has since been dropped
from public certified seed sources as far as I know. I keep
it on my farm as it seems to be one of those "uniquely
and specifically adapted varieties.” It yields well
and is consistently 38 pounds to 42 pounds test weight from
the field. After cleaning. I've had it as high as 48 pounds.
My fields had moderate mustard the past couple of years, but
this year it looks extra vigorous. I hope it's just part of
a long-term cycle. As for planting rates, if a field has moderate
N--oats following soy for example--I'll seed four to five
bushels per acre. If I've boosted the N through compost application
or a heavy legume cover within 1 to 2 years, I back off to
three to four bushels per acre.
After a warm dry April, May was a bit cooler and damper,
but not soggy like last year. We've had enough dry days in
the past two weeks that most growers have made good progress
and, like myself, will finish this week if they're not already
done. Small grain growth is good--but weeds are close behind.
Best regards,
John
Have some questions to Ask Jeff? E-mail
him directly at jeff.moyer@rodaleinst.org.
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