we have combined oats for a few years with a ih rotor combine,we would windrow it as opposed to direct cut,although we used to direct cut,got tired of dealing with wet oats.but anyway we have found that if you combine earlier in the day or late afternoon gives the best straw yield.there were acouple of questions about the quality of rotor straw as opposed to conventional,we have found the same thing,and our nieghbors who used to run non rotor combines used to have us come over and do their oats because the thought the straw was so much better than conventional harvested stuff.we did small squares, and the bales seemed to have more straw in them,and it seemed to be more absorbent.