With many harvested small grain fields that weren’t double cropped to soybeans now sitting idle, cattlemen still have an excellent opportunity to create high quality forages that may be grazed well into winter, and even next spring.
With four years of experience with summer-planted oats under our belts, preceded by several years of experience with cereal rye, we know there’s still plenty of time to ‘create’ anywhere from 2 to 5 tons of forages in wheat stubble or otherwise vacant fields.
Better yet, if you are fortunate enough to be in a Conservation Security Program watershed and are accepted into the program, the extended grazing options that are discussed below may be eligible for an additional enhancement payment.
For the balance of this summer we are continuing to demonstrate and experiment with a number of variations on the August seeded oats you’ve heard about previously.
Reasonable alternatives. Based on what we’ve learned so far, we believe the alternatives mentioned below deserve consideration by anyone needing additional high quality forages to extend the grazing season.
If your primary needs are forages for grazing, hay, or silage later this summer and fall, oats appear to be the most productive, least-cost option at this time.
Alternatives include:

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