Marroquin
New member
- Messages
- 1
Do you know when to cut oats for hay? I want to get the best feed value from them. What stage should I cut them at?
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Snow Farmer
Farm Hand
- Messages
- 33
'Milk' stage.
When you pinch the grain between your thumb and index finger, a waxy substance is produced. If no 'milk', not ready to cut.
When I know our oats are close, I check them every day, and in various areas of the field. When I find that most of those sampled are in 'milk'
then I know to get cutting, as long as the weather looks good for drying.
Takes longer to air dry oats for baling, they can carry more moisture than grass.
Bale them too soon and you will have problems with mould and heat.
Last year we had a lot of rain all summer long. I had to bale mine between rains, ended up with quite a few bales that were too moist. I kept all of the oat bales
out of the barn for several weeks as a precaution against heating (fire risk) A real pain in the neck, had to keep moving them around,
keep pallets under them, then as they air dried outside, I would move a few into the hay barn, again leaving space all around them for ventilation.
I would check each bale placed in the barn daily, for moisture and temperature, once they had dried up to less than 20% moisture I would then move them all out again,
and begin stacking for winter storage.
We had a bit of mould, but not too bad. I fed the dampest ones to the stock at the end of summer and all through the autumn, so they would'nt be dangerous to store in the barn.
When you pinch the grain between your thumb and index finger, a waxy substance is produced. If no 'milk', not ready to cut.
When I know our oats are close, I check them every day, and in various areas of the field. When I find that most of those sampled are in 'milk'
then I know to get cutting, as long as the weather looks good for drying.
Takes longer to air dry oats for baling, they can carry more moisture than grass.
Bale them too soon and you will have problems with mould and heat.
Last year we had a lot of rain all summer long. I had to bale mine between rains, ended up with quite a few bales that were too moist. I kept all of the oat bales
out of the barn for several weeks as a precaution against heating (fire risk) A real pain in the neck, had to keep moving them around,
keep pallets under them, then as they air dried outside, I would move a few into the hay barn, again leaving space all around them for ventilation.
I would check each bale placed in the barn daily, for moisture and temperature, once they had dried up to less than 20% moisture I would then move them all out again,
and begin stacking for winter storage.
We had a bit of mould, but not too bad. I fed the dampest ones to the stock at the end of summer and all through the autumn, so they would'nt be dangerous to store in the barn.