David
Oat crops will drop quality after emergence similar to barley, but the
increase in yield after emergence is probably greater so cutting early will
produce less but higher quality feed. As for pit v. bailing, Frank Mickan or
Joe Jacobs are probably the best resources. To my knowledge you need to chop
mature crops to get a good result with either method and pit silage will be
by far the best, as for crops done pre-emergence you may get away with not
chopping it but it is probably a risky strategy.
Cheers
John
Dr John Evans
Technical Development Manager
Heritage Seeds Pty Ltd
Po Box 4020 Mulgrave Vic 3170 Australia
Office: +61 3 9501 7000
Fax: +61 3 9561 9333
Mobile: +61 413 442 810
-----Original Message-----
From: David.Shambrook@dpi.vic.gov.au [mailto:David.Shambrook@dpi.vic.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 August 2006 10:12 AM
To: johne@heritageseeds.com.au
Cc: vicdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Making Silage from an Oat crop
John,
I saw your response to the Vic Dairy-L question on making silage from a
barley crop. I have a client who is looking to make some silage from an
oat crop. He wants to cut it before ear emergence due to preparing the
paddock for a summer crop straight after. Obviously the yield will be
lower but quality will be up. Is this true for an oat crop as well.
How would the oat crop go into round bales? As compared to pit silage. He
is looking to have the silage done by mid October.
Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.
Cheers
David Shambrook
ph 5662 9913
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Oct 24 2006 - 02:38:12 EST