How To Know When To Harvest Pea and Oat Field

This is Justin Fruechte, the Forage Specialist with Millborn Seeds. This is our Pea/Oat Blend.

Pea/Oats are a really good cool season annual forage. They are used for either making hay or for chopping. Those are your best two options with it.

The common question we get with the Peas and the Oats is when do I harvest it? So this was planted in mid April. Now we're into mid June. We've got about 60 days out here.

I think it's pretty close to being ready to hay. Some of these oats are just shooting a seed head out. If you pull back, obviously they are in late boot stage. The seed head is just right inside there. The peas are getting blossoms on there. In the next few days those will start to form pods as well. It's a pretty good time for you to cut it down and hay it.

With haying it, you don't want it so big that you just absolutely can't get that windrow dried down. You also don't want those oats to be shattering, or the pods to be shattering as it's drying out and you're raking it and baling it up.

If you're chopping it, let it be another 2-3 weeks. Even if it shoots a seed head, it will still keep growing up. As it keeps growing up, you're gaining forage yield. When those oats, after they've pollinated, the peas have flowered, then we get that pod formation, that grain formation on the oats.

When we are in the dough stage, we can pick that kernel of grain up and it's not really milky anymore. But it's starting to get a little bit hard. That's the optimum time to chop it for silage. At that time you're yield really won't gain anymore and you're quality will start to decrease after that.

So those are the 2 times you'll want to be looking at to chop. This is a great feed option. Good quality forage. High yielding forage option to plant in the Spring. Harvest mid Summer. Then double crop with another annual forage or cover crop later in July or August.

For more information, visit http://www.millbornseeds.com/forage.htm