First and foremost - you need a outlet or buyer . . . . . Here, in Mn, the millers do not like USA grown oats too much. They don't meet their milling specs. The Canadian and Northern European oats are what their mills are set up to handle, big heavy oat groats - not the spinney, little, light weight groats of the  USA. There's a market for good oat straw to the city residents. Not many livestock farmers are willing to pay more then about $15bucks a ton for bedding, so to get the return, need a source for the $4 -$5 bales people. Oats are very, very sensitive to past crop chemicals, especially corn chems (atrazine especially). Oats can be straight combined, if you get the right weather at harvest - more likely need to swath and hope it doesn't rain on the windrow. They do go thought a sweat and can pick up a little test weight or rott and become dusty (millers hate dusty oats and likely will reject them) ? just depends on their mood. 2-3 pass's for N is very helpful to gain test weight. Oats needs N later in their life, not early.