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Buck forage oats whitetail Institute oats or reg oats from fleet farm?
neither
buck forage oats is a variety called BOB. Last year there was noxious weeds on their tag. I'm not sure anyone would ever want noxious weed seeds in a mix.
Regular oats....could be short early maturing. It could contain 50% germ count. It could contain weed seeds at a high level. I'm not sure why anyone would ever gamble on seed. What if you get a 1/2 stand? Would you be ok with bare ground and weeds filling in the gaps?
Harrison oats, goliath oats, forage plus oats, bob (by a company that cleans them well) or jerry are all varieties that i'd recommend.
The difference is oats is like the difference in corn varieties. How many farmers would say, "hey, corn is corn, just run and grab a bag." Those farmers all went broke.
So why on earth save $5 a bag and have no clue what will grow and give up anywhere from 25-50% of the yield?
I have sold oats for 25 years and have conducted 3 straight years of oat trials and this is 1 topic that drives me wild. I'm not sure why anyone in the wildlife industry goes against science and does the opposite of 95% of the farming community. The days of bin run oats is long gone. Again, those farmers went broke.
here is last years buck forage oats tag. Anything stand out for you all?
A few more weeds maybe...
Just checked my whitetail Insitute oats.79.57 oats,8.93 wheat,8.67 fridge triticale,2.06 other matter,.52 inert matter,0.25 weed seed.this is from last years bag i still have 5 lbs left.
I just buy oats from our local feed store. What do you all feel about them.
I bought and planted feed oats from my local feed store. They seem to have about a 50% germination. What did come up looks good and the deer are hammering it.
What am i missing here? Why would anyone plant seed thats got low germination count and with high weed seed counts? All to save $4 an acre?
Ok, let me put my nutrition and agronomy hat on. Say you have half the germination and your stand yields 50% less, that would be 1 ton of forage dry matter per acre versus 2. At a value of about $100 per ton, your losing $100 of forage to save 4 bucks. That is a negative 25-1 return on your investment.
Ok lets play the agronomy card. If you have a high weed seed count and or noxious weeds. You might have to spend $20 an acre extra next year on chemicals.
This current year if you have high amount of weed seeds, that also can affect yields and forage quality. Say you have 20% yield loss because of the weed pressures, that is still a negative 5-1 return on your investment.
Ok let me try 1 more thing. There is zero dairy farmers that i know of in the whole state of Wisconsin that feed straight forage oats to lactating milk cows. There is a huge reason for this. They prefer to offer nutrition and quality.
Plant for success, not hopes and prayers.
Listen to the man guys ! I'm still fighting some kind of frickin weed that I got from feed store soybeans three years ago or more. Native to Kansas, but not to Texas. If the state biologist hadn't looked it up, I wouldn't even know where it came from.
I didn't know there was any difference in oats except price. Now I do, thanks Nutritionist. This is only my second year dabbling in food plots.
I hope i'm not coming across as an a@@. I hate weeds and my dad who is 71 has a part time job. He sprays weeds on the farm every week. The next door neighbor has 600 acres in a 99 year government program. They bought seed from phe@@@nts Fo@@@r and blessed us with garlic mustard and another weed that it took the state of wisconsin 3 days to figure out what it was.
So, weeds are a swear word around my family and it's my biggest pet peeve. Maybe i am just weird but i hate high weed count seeds.
Bin run oats will work. 2.5 bushel per acre,not much nitrogen (lodging problems). It's an annual obviously, so weed problems, if any, can be easily addressed.
Nutritionist, while I agree with your statement in general, keep in mind that there are weeds that are listed as "noxious" that are not a huge concern. I am in the seed business and we often have cheat listed as a noxious in some of our cereal grains. Cheat is very difficult to get out 100% from oats due to their specific weights being fairly close. Dock, which I assume is Curly Dock, is listed as a noxious but is usually easily controlled with broadleaf weed herbicides. I am not familiar with Darnel so I have no observations on this one. Also, most seed companies will state on the tag that there is a certain percentage of weed seed or noxious weeds. (Noxious weeds are listed as seeds/lb). There may not even be any of the weed seed present in the bag. But, if it is NOT on the tag and the State Dept of Ag finds some (even 1 seed), then you get a stop sale on that whole lot of seed. I do TOTALLY agree with your statement about not buying "bin run" or feed oats to plant. You have no idea what you are getting. You have no information on germination, weed content, variety, maturity etc. Always plant good tested seed from a reputable company.
Had a major pigweed invasion a few years back. Was talking to my seed guy about it and the first words out of his mouth were "ever plant Buck Forage Oats?" Talked to Biologic about getting rid of them and they told me not to even try. Find another field to plant. Not an option. Have had it in RR beans for 5 years and have it almost gone.
I have sat and watched oats being cleaned and also talked with one of the major growers on weed seeds last week.
Sure a couple noxious weeds can be tolerated but tell me how much is acceptible? Bin run seed could have 1-2% weed seeds in some areas but even if it's only .50% weeds why take a chance?
Plus i sell certified forage oats for $15/48 lbs. Why would anyone spend $8-12 per 50 lb bag and not know if you will get a 50% stand or an infestation of weeds? Plus nutritionally and agronomically, you might have 10 different varieties, none of which are forage type oats in bin run. The odds are also more likely to have earlier varieties which typically are lower in protein and NEg.
Just my 2 cents
