Oats and corn companion planting?

[Mountain_anderson]

Hi all
I am a small farmer just starting my own operation. I own various peices of machinery to do most of my work. I would like to make my own chicken feed this year as I sell to various places and the cost of organic feed is far to expensive, and that is what I pride myself and my customers on. So I found it would be much cheaper to make my own based on my operation and costs. I have the space, at least I thought I did. Something came up and where I am deciding to plant my oats this year I cannot. I know it is getting very late so I'm trying to knock this out as soon as possible. I have a small patch where I am planting corn, a little more than an acre which should get me enough for part of the ration im making. I plan to harvest it by hand with some of my buddies who owe me favors. Since it would be by hand, there wouldn't be much field distrubance that a combine would do so I was wondering if I would be able to plant oats on top of this field with the corn in the ground as well, and just harvest it with the combine I have. I only need a little more than 500Lbs for my ration and I am sure I can get that if not more from my one acre if I plant my corn with it as well. What do you guys think?

 

[centash]

So, you are planting the corn and oats at the same time? Never heard it done before, but there is no reason to try. My only concern is that the oats will be ready to harvest long before the corn is, and that may affect your harvesting methods. Late planting of the oats to avoid this may result in the corn shadowing out the oats. Weed control will be an issue if both crops are planted together, ruling out mechanical weeding, although the oats may compete against early weeds....but against the corn as well. Keep us posted, and good luck!

Ben

 

[craigco]

I think you would trample more oats hand picking then a combine by the time you walk down nearly every row. Won't the oats be ready before the corn? How will a platform head like cutting stalks to get to the oats?

 

[Mountain_anderson]

I think you would trample more oats hand picking then a combine by the time you walk down nearly every row. Won't the oats be ready before the corn? How will a platform head like cutting stalks to get to the oats?

I was planning to just strip whatever cobs are on the stalk and just cut them down after, I have a whole bunch of people to help so i dont think labor will be an issue. I think even if I do this method, i will still have more than enough oats to cover my feed for this year. but yes I am a bit worried the corn will come up first. Maybe I will plant corn first, then once they emerge, ill aggitate the soil with a cultivator then just drop spread the oats on top

 

[Loosehandle]

I don't think its going to turn out very well. Whats your nitrogen source?

 

[Mountain_anderson]

I don't think its going to turn out very well. Whats your nitrogen source?

I was only planning to just do beef manure. I was thinking maybe like 30in spacing with a couple seeds dropped at each?

 

[rrlund]

This might not be that far fetched. I've seen oats planted as a cover crop after wheat harvest that you could have combined in late fall. How about if you broadcast some oats just before you cultivate for the last time? The cultivator will cover them. This could work.

 

[flying belgian]

Hi all
I am a small farmer just starting my own operation. I own various peices of machinery to do most of my work. I would like to make my own chicken feed this year as I sell to various places and the cost of organic feed is far to expensive, and that is what I pride myself and my customers on. So I found it would be much cheaper to make my own based on my operation and costs. I have the space, at least I thought I did. Something came up and where I am deciding to plant my oats this year I cannot. I know it is getting very late so I'm trying to knock this out as soon as possible. I have a small patch where I am planting corn, a little more than an acre which should get me enough for part of the ration im making. I plan to harvest it by hand with some of my buddies who owe me favors. Since it would be by hand, there wouldn't be much field distrubance that a combine would do so I was wondering if I would be able to plant oats on top of this field with the corn in the ground as well, and just harvest it with the combine I have. I only need a little more than 500Lbs for my ration and I am sure I can get that if not more from my one acre if I plant my corn with it as well. What do you guys think?

So you have little over an acre total? I think I would plant half in corn and half in oats. Rotate next year. I just don't think your going to get much oats after trampling it down picking the corn. And besides if you plant today the corn will be shading the oats in about 6 weeks so you won't get much oats anyway. You can still pick your corn by hand. How are you going to harvest the oats? If separate like I talk you can cut it with the hay mower.

 

[Mountain_anderson]

This might not be that far fetched. I've seen oats planted as a cover crop after wheat harvest that you could have combined in late fall. How about if you broadcast some oats just before you cultivate for the last time? The cultivator will cover them. This could work.

to make them harvestable?

 

[Mountain_anderson]

So you have little over an acre total? I think I would plant half in corn and half in oats. Rotate next year. I just don't think your going to get much oats after trampling it down picking the corn. And besides if you plant today the corn will be shading the oats in about 6 weeks so you won't get much oats anyway. You can still pick your corn by hand. How are you going to harvest the oats? If separate like I talk you can cut it with the hay mower.

I was going to harvest the oats with an mf 35 i have

 

[flying belgian]

I was going to harvest the oats with an mf 35 i have

I had to look up what a 35 is. That's a sweet little combine. Just reinforces my opinion about raising the oats separate.

 

[rrlund]

to make them harvestable?

They come up and mature pretty quick. What do you have to loose by trying? Two bushels of oats?

 

[Mountain_anderson]

They come up and mature pretty quick. What do you have to loose by trying? Two bushels of oats?

so plant the corn and harvest it and then afterwards plant the oats?

 

[rrlund]

so plant the corn and harvest it and then afterwards plant the oats?

No. Broadcast the oats over the growing corn just before the last cultivation, then cultivate it in. They used a make a real narrow horse drawn drill to plant small grains between corn rows.

 

[Mountain_anderson]

No. Broadcast the oats over the growing corn just before the last cultivation, then cultivate it in. They used a make a real narrow horse drawn drill to plant small grains between corn rows.

I was just starting to get on the fence on whether or not to just split the field in half and do one thing of oats and on thing of corn vs this, a lot of people saying the trampling of people walking on the oats would be enough to kill them. Is oats as hardy as wheat and barley and could they withstand a beating at a young stage with animals grazing on them and such but still grow back to be harvestable?

 

[rrlund]

I was just starting to get on the fence on whether or not to just split the field in half and do one thing of oats and on thing of corn vs this, a lot of people saying the trampling of people walking on the oats would be enough to kill them. Is oats as hardy as wheat and barley and could they withstand a beating at a young stage with animals grazing on them and such but still grow back to be harvestable?

I think they were figuring the oats would be mature when you picked the corn.

 

[rrlund]

I was just starting to get on the fence on whether or not to just split the field in half and do one thing of oats and on thing of corn vs this, a lot of people saying the trampling of people walking on the oats would be enough to kill them. Is oats as hardy as wheat and barley and could they withstand a beating at a young stage with animals grazing on them and such but still grow back to be harvestable?

Why don't you try this. Split it half and half and try sowing some oats in a few rows like I said and see if it works. If it does, maybe you can try more next year.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

The corn and oats both like nitrogen the corn much more so but they still are in the same mode of operation where they are going to use it up you would be better off planting soybeans in half your area as late as it’s getting most oats even this far north have been in a month. Not saying it wouldn’t work out but especially trying to interplant it the corn will shade it badly. Chickens like soybean meal as well…it’s usually in the protein mash you can buy

 

[Timmycornpicker]

I'm way late to the party on this one, but read about testing of wide-row corn and cover crops which might give you some ideas for the future. https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/corn/corn-maverick-cracking-mystery-60-inch-rows

 

[paul]

So…

We don’t know where you are, your soils and your climate is the thing.

Here we like to plant oats as soon as we possibly can. Oats like a cool spring and cooler temps when it flowers. Plant in April - end of March in a sweet early spring if you can -, harvest in early August.

Corn needs all summer to grow, but you don’t want it to freeze. So plant closer to May. Harvest in October. It likes the hot humid long summer days.

So I don’t understand how any of your plan would work. The oats needs harvested first. That isnt fun by hand, especially mixed with corn crop.

Corn likes to emerge and grow about 6 inches tall, then sits there and grows its root structure. If anything shades it, that disrupts its pattern and abandons the root building, and tries to outgrow whatever is shading it. But with the poor roots now, the plant is devastated and will never yield well. So your oats will screw up your corn yields.

Oats needs sunshine as it flowers and then fills the seeds out. If you have corn mixed in with it, the corn will shade the oats and mess up the oat kernel filling out.

Both are grasses, so they also will be competing for the same nutrients. They will not complement each other. If you put a corn crop and a bean crop together for example, one of the crops will suffer but it at least helps the other crop, somewhat. Using your two grass crops, there is no benefits to either.

If you try to plant oats late, it does not grow good test weight kernels. The timing is all wrong, it flowers and tries to fill out the kernels in the wrong weather, and you get 20# test weight oats, basically just hulls. It might look nice from the road, but it’s a terrible grain crop.

In any of the mixed planting options (I’m guessing, based on my local conditions), both crops will be harmed and yield lower and have poorer quality grain, low test weight, lower nutrition because your 2 grass crops are competing with each other and harming each other, or because you would be planting them at the wrong times. This would result in poorer feed quality, not better than what you could buy at the feed store?

I also realize this is an older thread, but I would be very interested to know what you tried, and how it is turning out. In your climate perhaps things are different and it can work out. Would love to learn from you, even if it would never work ‘here’, what works ‘there?’

Paul