Air February 16, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. We’re past Valentine’s Day so it’s time to be thinking about oats planting if you are so inclined. A few thoughts on that in just a minute. First of all a reminder of the farm estate planning using trusts meeting that will be a week from yesterday, Tuesday, February 22nd, in Manhattan at Pottorf Hall from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. Roger McEowan will be on hand to discuss what he didn’t have time to cover a year ago at our estate planning meeting. Roger is very knowledgable and a fascinating speaker to listen to. He is probably one of the leaders in this legal area across the country. If you need more information about this meeting, give me a call!

We don’t plant near as many oats as we used to, but I think many times we are failing to use them as a good rotational tool. While the cash market may not be that great, they do have good feed value, they do make good silage or hay and as I indicated, they can be a real benefit in a rotation if you are heading into alfalfa, either fall or spring planted. Unfortunately, we all too often handle our oats crop as if it was going to fail, so guess what happens? You end up with only a so so oats crop! Plant your oats in a timely fashion. My rule of thumb for oats planting is Valentine’s Day to St.Patrick’s Day (for those of you who are holiday challenged, that would be mid February to mid-March. Secondly, plant enough seed to get a good stand. Two bushels per acre would be average and 2½ bushels would not be out of the question. There are some newer improved varieties, but you will probably just need to see what’s available and plant that. Try not to drill it in too deep as this will slow germination. Apply 20 to 30 pounds of phosphate and 50 to 60 pounds of nitrogen. Then be ready to treat for weeds if you see a problem developing.

Now, if you are going to do some spring seeded alfalfa and want to use oats as a companion crop or nurse crop then all of what I just said goes out the window. You’re going to plant alfalfa in mid April to early May. Broadcast about a bushel of oats per acre across the field just before drilling your alfalfa. The drilling action will get enough oat seed incorporated to get a decent stand. But remember, you are harvesting off these oats as a forage crop. Like all our other crops, we can grow a pretty decent oats crop IF Mother Nature will simply cooperatire.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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