16/05/2022
OATS PRODUCTION GUIDE
🌾Oats are grown for grain, forage, fodder, straw, bedding, hay, silage and chaff. Food uses include oatmeal, oat flour, oat bran and oat flakes.
Oats are among the most nutritious cereals, high in protein and fibre. The protein of rolled oats is generally greater than that of other cereals. Many of the vitamins and minerals in oats are in the bran and germ, and most oat food products use the entire groat.
🌾LAND PREPARATION:
Oats can be grown on a wide range of soils and will tolerate more acidic soils with pH range of 4.5-5.5 than either wheat or barley. Good land preparation is essential for establishment of a good crop. Land should be ploughed to a depth of 150- 225mm and harrowed and/or disc to produce a fine seedbed.
🌾COMMON VARIETIES:
Florida- Days to mature 160 days, planting dates End of April. Generally it is a late maturing variety, but high yielding
Rapida- Days to mature 120-125, planting dates May onwards. Generally it is an early maturing variety, medium to high yielding.
🌾SEED RATES:
50-60 kg/ha if drilled or 70 kg/ha if seed is broadcasted. Row spacing is 15-25 cm and 50 cm to 100 cm between the rows . The required depth for seeding is 2 cm to 5 cm depending on the available soil moisture or the farming method.
🌾FERTIZATION:
✍The nitrogen management of the oats crop is determined by soil and nutrient management strategies, including the previous crop (type), soil water availability, soil nitrogen availability, yield potential, risk of lodging, timing of nitrogen applications and nitrogen sources available for use. For hay production under irrigation, 100 kg N per hectare is recommended, with an additional 25 to 50 kg/ha after each grazing and/or fodder harvest, depending on level of production. For grain production the general recommendation per hectare is 90 kg N per 25 kg P and 20 kg K for a grain yield potential of 4,5 t/ha.
✍The general guideline is 20 kg N per ton of grain for soils with low organic carbon content. For soils with a high-quality residue available for utilisation, 30 kg N per ton of grain yield potential must be applied. Phosphorus is vital for establishment, especially early in the growth season, while sufficiently available potassium can reduce lodging and ensure uniform ripening. Under dryland conditions in the high-rainfall regions, the recommendation per hectare is 40 kg N, 10 kg P and 10 kg K (optional).
✍A maximum of 20 kg N per hectare or a total of 50 kg N and K per hectare can be seed-placed safely, and higher applications must be band-placed away from the seed. The phosphorus fertiliser recommendations (kg P per hectare) at the yield potential levels and soil analysis value (mg/kg P-Bray 1), as well as the potassium fertiliser recommendations (kg K per hectare) at the relevant yield potential levels and soil potassium analysis value (mg/kg K) currently used for dryland wheat production can also be applied for oats production.
✍Keep in mind that the yield potential of oats is lower than that of wheat under both dryland and irrigation. The same fertiliser recommendations can be used for grazing establishment, with the option of additional N applications after grazing events combined with rainfall occurrence
🌾IRRIGATION:
✍The most critical stages of moisture require are during root development, heading, early Flowering, and early grain filling (milk dough stages).
The following recommendations can be used-
👉Pre irrigation before sowing and bringing soil slightly below field capacity
👉Immediately after sowing 22 mm of water should be applied and this is repeated five days later
👉Water is applied again 3-4 weeks after sowing or when the crown roots have developed.
👉Apply 44mm after top dressing and herbicide application.
👉Recommended water requirement for a season ranges from 350-600mm.
🌾WEED CONTROL:
Apply Fenron at the rate of 1.7kg/ha at any stage and a lower rate of 1.0kg/ha 3weeks after germination.
🌾DISEASES:
👉Crown Rust (Puccinia Coronata)
Small oval strange yellow particles scattered on both leaves. Controlled by using resistant variety
👉Barley Yellow Dwarf Diseases:
Causes reddening of leaves, stunting, an upright posture of thickened stiff leaves, reduced root growth and a reduction in yield. Heads of affected plants tend to remain erect and become black and discoloured during ripening due to colonisation by saprophytic fungi
👉Loose s**t (Ustilago Avenae):
A seed borne disease, which reduces ears to black powder.Seed dressing best controls this disease.
👉Stem rust (Puccinia Graminis var avenae):
Causes reddish brown elongated pustules on stems and leaves. No other known control methods other than planting resistant varieties.
🌾HARVESTING
✍Oats can be harvested at grain moisture content below 20 %. Shattering in the field can be a problem and rain during harvesting can result in kernel discolouration and consequent downgrading of the crop. Normally a commercial harvester is used to harvest the crop, especially when a large number of hectares have been planted.
✍To obtain a higher quality, dehulled kernels must be avoided. This may involve slower cylinder speed and wider concave clearances. Hulless oats are vulnerable to damage. Thresher cylinder speed should be reduced to approximately 900 rpm and the concaves should be carefully
adjusted to avoid damage. Plot harvesters/combines are used for trials
with small plots. Very small areas are harvested in the traditional way, that
is, with the use of sickles
🌾POST-HARVEST HANDLING:
Cleaning and sieving:
✍There are various options (including cleaning and sieving) to improve grain quality parameters, especially hectolitre mass, to obtain better prices per ton of grain.
Grading:
✍The grading of oats is mostly based on the specifications determined by the buyer. The main “grading factor” is hectolitre mass. Large and well-filled groats/kernels are in high demand by the processors and hectolitre mass is an indication of this aspect of quality.
✍Just as in the case of wheat and barley, hectolitre mass of oats is determined during the grain-filling stage. Abnormal leaf senescence prior to or during flowering and grain filling because of malnutrition, diseases or
stress will cause low hectolitre mass. The deficiencies must be corrected
before the flag-leaf stage to ensure a positive effect on hectolitre mass.
🌾STORAGE:
✍Oats can only be stored safely at a grain moisture below 12,5 %, or alternatively it can/should be delivered to the buyer as soon as possible to
secure the investment. This is the safest and easiest, as the storage of
grain can be problematic, especially if the necessary infrastructure is not
available.
✍Grain can be stored in concrete or galvanised iron silos. The capacity of these silos can vary from under 1 000 tons to 5 000 tons. Grain can also be stored in silo bags with a capacity of about 180 tons, depending on the type of grain stored. The precautions and recommendations always haveto be followed very strictly. Grain can also be stored in bags, for instance 25 kg, 50 kg or 80 kg each. The bags should be packed on poles to avoid dampening by the floor.
✍Rodents damage the bags and eat the grain, causing huge losses and
pollution of the grain. Grain insects must be controlled by fumigation with
phosphate gas and rodents with poison in pellet or liquid form. Only chemicals/insecticides registered for that specific grain may be sprayed on the grain to control insects.
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