Oat Hay?

[Tilly]

We need to get more hay this weekend, and found an add in the paper for oat hay for $3 a bale. Great price, but I've never used it before. Is it good stuff for dexters in milk? They do get a bit of grain daily when they are milked.

[ONThorsegirl]

From what I know, unless its green, there isn't much protein in Oat Straw but maybe someone else can help out.

Melissa

[FreeRanger]

Oat hay and oat straw are two different products from the same plant. Oat hay is rarely made but is pre-mature oats. So yes it is the green leaves BEFORE the grainheads start to form. Oat hay would have a similar feed value to some grasses. How much can vary greatly because of when in the growth it was taken.

Oat straw is the waste product of producing oat grain. There is very little feed value and yes it is yellow. Oat straw is just the stem and no leaf.

So you know ask why would someone make oat hay?

Typically if you are starting a new alfalfa field on a hillside, you should plant a cover crop of oats to get a quick establishment to stop soil erosion. Most farmers would wait to harvest the grain and straw. However, there are a few reason to harvest the oat plants early. Here is a couple; 1 need more hay, 2 want to get a good first year crop of alfalfa off the field in the fall (possibly two crops instead of one crop the first year), 3 you have no need for straw or oat seed and you don't have the combine to harvest it anyway.

Sun can bleach bales yellow so look inside the bales before you say no to the sale.

I can not comment on the price. Small square bales vary greatly in size. Even in my own barn I have four different types of smsq bales and three different sizes all from one custom baler. He can adjust the lenght depending on what the crop is. 100% grass bales different from 100% alfalfa. When he came to my farm for first crop, he had just finished baling his 100% alfalfa. My 100% grass bales came out super small and light weight. I am charging $2.50/bale and I know they weigh about 35-40 lbs. I only have about 150 bales left to sell before I start selling second and third crops (which I plan to ask at least $3).

[genebo]

I raised oats for hay one year. You have to cut it when the seeds are in the "milk" stage, before seeds have formed. Once it makes seeds, all the nutrition goes into the seeds.

I fed it to my Dexters for a treat. They loved it! They could smell it before you put it out and they would mob you.

Look at the stems for leaves left on them and seeds that haven't formed yet. All the seeds should be present, just not formed.

If you see empty seed husks, then it probably won't have any food value left in it. It's just straw, then.

If you can, feed a bale to your cows. They can tell a lot about it. They won't eat straw unless they're really hungry.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[ksfarmer]

FreeRanger and Genebo say it very well.