Latimer, Iowa (north central) | There is a number of things that help oat yield from our experience. And my experience is from making enough mistakes to learn a few things. Oats need to be looked at as a part of a system approach in conjunction with your other crops. I have grown 2500 acres of oats in the past 5 years in northern Iowa. We are Des Moines lobe soil, flat, wet, black soil. Our farms also have a strong manure history and majority are pattern tiled. We are also 100% no-till and cover crops and do not use insecticide and fungicide on any of our acres or crops. Every farmer has different things that work for them but just setting background. My 5 year yield average is 136 bpa and 40.2 lbs on a test weight. Our growers up by Rochester MN are seeing similar test weights and yield averages about 115 bpa. They have different soil and different practices. The growers in Brookings area are tending to be in the 130-140 bpa range for averages. A grower by Ellendale MN was 107 bpa last year with how wet it was there.
Variety selection is key and arguably most important. When we grew "saddle" or "jerry" they would be 33 lbs for a test weight. With "reins" or "rushmore" we get 40 lbs test weight. Reins are a short, early variety so I prefer them. In the Dakotas a SD State variety may be better. 33lbs is not acceptable from current food grade varieties.
Fertilizer wise I shoot for 1 unit of N per bushel of yield. So on bean stubble going to oats we credit beans for 50 units N, and apply 2000 gallons liquid hog manure. For 2025 I am also applying 2 ton of composted cattle manure in addition to 1500 gallons hog manure as we I hypothesize feeding the different fungi with different manures is better. We have put down some DAP (50 units N) with the seeder when planting and then topdressed Urea (60 units N) in late May with good results as well on fields that didn't get manure.
Plant as early as the field is in shape. I won't mud oats in mid march but will mud them in anytime after April 1st if they are not in by then.
Plant with as narrow row spacing as possible for weeds. Our air seeder is 7.5 inch. 3/4 inch deep, 1890/1910 Deere If my GPS drifts and I get a 10" gap weeds will grow.
Planting rate of 2.75 bu-3bu per acre.
We are not using any fungicide, herbicide, or insecticide on our oats. Some herbicides will hurt your yields. If you are using fungicide on your corn and beans you may have to on your oats. We have just completely went away from it. I know some organic growers getting similar yields to ours, actually generally better, in the Algona Iowa area, that obviously don't use synthetics.
To combat oats going down, as mentioned Reins are a short, early maturing variety. I cut standing, right under the heads with a draper. We will start at 19% moisture and then run them through a dryer. We have a mixed flow, know guys with towers, and know guys with Superbs. Oats are most susceptible to going down when they are dead ripe. By drying them we get them off 10 days or so sooner. Also be very carefully not to overlap your seed or your fertilizer. Where there is overlaps on endrows I have seen them start to fall.
Getting the oats off sooner also allows a better start for the next crop. The additional crop that a small grains allows really super charges your returns as land costs have been paid by the oats. We are double cropping soybeans on some acres, last year they were 23 bpa, another rain would of helped... We are grazing cattle, 650 pounders have been averaging 3.06 lbs per day gain just eating cover crops for 100 days. I am experimenting with camelina to Cargill in Fargo. We do some hybrid rye. These double crops can add $100-$300 per acre in profit. actual profit, not just income.
We screw up enough every year to learn more but this is where I am currently at. Variety, plant early with right equipment, fertilize healthy soil, and harvest early.
I am increasing my oat acres from 500 to 1700 acres for 2025. Plan on doing these practices. There is not good crop insurance options on oats so we just self insure ie no crop insurance. Our corn has been yielding 7% better following oats then soybeans, our inputs following oats are significantly less. We are going to a full 3 crop rotation because it makes us much more profit then just corn and soy.
Edit spelling and to say we are not doing anything special but guys are welcome to come visit too. I always take a pic of my settings so included that. Running an 8250 case with 50’ macdon. Two large wire concaves and 2 round bar. Same setup as we do for corn. Small grains concaves seem to plug with wet material and not let the oats out.
If you read all that we are building a farmer owned oat mill in Albert Lea MN that will pay investors a $6.50 average annual price for oats that might interest you.
Edited by Green Acres Guy 2/19/2025 16:05
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High yield/high managed oats
