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| I planted oats/barley on August 5th 3 years ago, took a few frosts, took a foot of snow in mid October, harvested the 1st few days of Nov., shoulda had them off sooner, part time guy, anyway, we had 11 bale per acre, 1200 lbs, wrecked the tailgate on my new F-250 rolling them off in the hills for my cows in Nov/Dec. I have 20 acres rented from a neighbour now, oats have been in a month, a foot high, looking for 10 bales, a poor crop will be 5-6 bales, throw some N at them. I can surely tell all, there are 1000'zz of acres of oats planted in Ontario, if all goes well, the hay dealers that have their barns full of 10-12-14 cent hay and looking to sell it later on, I recommend they should be sold out now. I kniow of one large dairy operation that has 4-500 acres of oats in and we are getting some cooler weather, oat weather, would like a rain anytime soon, but this crop works for a whole lotta cow feed. For the guys in Mich and edible bean area in Ontario, try to get some edible bean straw, has to be right behind the combine, 7% protein, cows like it. And for our friend that is going to plant oats after sweet corn, discbine the sweet corn and abale it and wrap it, cow feed for sure. Many in SW Ontario will follow the combine when harvesting corn, cut'n the moist stalks, baling and wrapping, ensiles nicely. Lots of desperation in Ontario, as beef farmers short of feed, we need to think out of the box.
I am putting up some sweet corn by-product, some seed corn shucklage, oatlage, 1/3 of the dry hay I normally have, and have double the straw I have ever had. May get a neighbour in once a week with his TMR and do a weeks grind for me, works when we are in cooler weather. I have 50 cows, can't invest in a TMR but these things sure are popular amoungst our bigger bef cow/calf guys this year, nuerous have bought good used ones that our 'rich dairy farmers' have traded in. Sorry dairy guys south of the border, I truly understand your challenges, similar to us poor old beef cow/calf guys and we are across the continent. | |
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double crop oats in ontario
