Small Grains Focus

Oat Production in Minnesota

By Jochum Wiersma, U of M Small Grains Specialist,
wiers002@umn.edu

Cleaning house in my office recently, I found a publication published by the University of Minnesota Extension Service in 1968, “Oat Production in Minnesota.”  Authors H. Otto, C. Overdahl, and D.D. Stuthman pointed out that, at the time, Minnesota was the leading oat producer in the nation with nearly 3 million acres in the state, peaking at over 5 million acres in the state in the 1950s, with much of it used as livestock feed.  

Minnesota’s oat acreage currently is about 5% of what it was back then.  That’s a dramatic shift in half a century, and much of the decline can probably be explained by the replacement of oats with corn and soybeans as the primary sources of livestock feed. Oats is primarily used now as a companion crop to establish alfalfa and other small seeded perennials. The other uses include livestock feed and some is used for human consumption.

What are the best management practices for oats? As with hard red spring wheat or barley, when producing oats as a commodity, quality of the harvested grain is paramount. High test weight, high grain protein, and low percent groat are essential when marketing oats. When producing for the horse feed market, seed color also becomes an important consideration with horse owners preferring white oats over yellow oats. To ensure high quality grain, keep the following in mind to start off the season right.

Variety Selection - Select varieties that have a balanced combination of grain quality, grain yield, and maturity. Do not plant full-season varieties in southern Minnesota. Even though the difference between the earliest and latest variety in days to heading is only a week, these seven days can impact grain yield and grain quality tremendously. Especially test weight will decrease if heat stress occurs during grain fill.

Planting - Between wheat and oats, oats has a lower optimum as well as a lower maximum temperature for photosynthesis (Table 1) . This means that if you want to produce a high quality commodity, planting oats first is essential.  This will allow the crop to mature before the summer heat will shorten grain fill and reduce grain quality.

Table 1. Minimum optimum and maximum growth temperatures for cereal crops. Crop Minimum Optimum Maximum Wheat 37-29 75-77 86-90 Barley 37-29 68-70 82-86 Rye 37-29 65-70 82-86 Tritical 37-29 68-70 82-86 Oats 37-29 68-70 82-86 Adapted from “How Cereal Crops Grow”, E.L. Deckard, C.G. Messersmith, and J.L. Helm, NDSU Extension Service.

Table 2. The recommended planting dates for oats in the Northern Plains. Location Planting Dates South Dakota April 2-May 1 North Dakota April 25-May 5 Minnesota April 15 - May 5

Research in Iowa has shown that grain yield decreased an average of 1.3 bushels/acre for each day planting was delayed after mid -April. The window for planting in the Northern Plains is between mid April and the first week of May.

Seeding rates – The optimum initial plant population that is recommended is 28 to 30 plants/ sq ft. Expect to plant between 80 to 110 lbs of seed per acre, depending on the variety, the seed count of the seed lot and the percent germination.

Fact sheets of the University of Minnesota oat varieties Leonard, Richard, Sesqui, and Wabasha are available on the web. The PDF versions can be downloaded from the following address www.maes.umn.edu/maespubs/vartrial/cropages/oatpage.html.  You can find more small grains production information on the web at www.smallgrains.org .  See the link “Production & Research Info.”