"Wish we had seeded more oats on our farm", was one of the comments made by the Hon. Clay Serby, Minister of Agriculture, when he addressed the Prairie Oat Growers' Association Annual Meeting in December, 2001. Judging by the chuckles and the number of nodding heads in the near capacity crowd, there were a lot of producers who agreed with him. Especially with oat prices hovering in that $3/bushel range.
While the price of oats has growers excited, oats as a regular part of a rotation works well when winter wheat is also included in the rotation. The key to seeding oats and then winter wheat is to seed the oats EARLY! At the POGA meeting, a couple of researchers presented material that showed seeding oats early has a number of benefits.
Bill May, IHARF Agronomist, indicated all his oat research has been done under direct seeding. He indicated that seeding by the middle of May or earlier enables the oats to compete against wild oats. Seeding early is also one way of reducing the risk of rust. He finds that the earlier oats are seeded, the higher the test weight tends to be. When seeding is delayed, both the test weight and yield tend to decrease.
In terms of fertility, super high amounts of N are not usually required by oats. May indicated that if the soil residual N is greater than 20 lbs, not more than another 54 lbs/ac N is needed. In fact, a higher rate of N isn't likely to increase yield and usually decreases the test weight.
Seeding Rate has also been re-evaluated. Traditionally, oats have been seeded at low rates. May said a higher seeding rate, where about 300 plants/m2 are seeded is better for a lot of reasons. Firstly, in fields where wild oats were a real problem, a higher seeding rate generally resulted in fewer wild oats. In fact, where wild oats were a problem, seeding rate was more important in determining the oats competitiveness than N rates! Test weight also tended to be higher with increased seeding rates. May is starting to look at how other agronomic practises can be used with high seeding rates to control wild oats in a direct seeding system.
Dr. Steve Shirtliffe, University of Saskatchewan, agreed with May that higher seeding rates enhance the competitiveness of the oats.
Shirtliffe said that delaying seeding in order to catch the first flush of wild oats will result in a decreased yield and milling quality. He suggested a better way to out-compete wild oats is to apply glyphosate pre-seeding and to use a low disturbance seeding system to seed the oats.
Come harvest time, Shirtliffe doesn't recommend a pre-harvest application of glyphosate. He said that test weight can drop by as much as 3 - 5 lbs/bu when an oats field is sprayed pre-harvest. Kernel breakage can also increase. And perhaps most importantly, the millers don't want any glyphosate residues on their product!
Thom Wier, Extension Agrologist, SAF indicated that oats are susceptible to carry-over from several herbicides. Those with the greatest potential for damage in a succeeding oats crop include the trifluralins, imidazolinones and some of the "newer" Group 2 wild oat chemistry. Weir also indicated that dry weather may reduce the rate that these herbicides break down.
In the panel discussion on general oat agronomics, Weir related that he had once visited a field with areas of severe Sulfur deficiency. In those areas, there was as much as an 8 - 10 bu/ac reduction in yield. He commented that due to the variability of the S in fields, a soil test may not always show those areas where S is deficient.
Oats is one of the better crops to grow prior to seeding winter wheat. Getting the oats into the ground early not only ensures timely seeding of the succeeding winter wheat crop, but the oats crop will benefit as well. Early seeding will generally result in a more competitive oats crop with the potential for higher yield and quality.