Product Used: Outback Forage Oats
When his regular oats was unavailable at the start of last year Gil Brown, from Denman, in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, turned to Outback oats as an alternative. Mr Brown said he had read some good things about Outback oats so was keen to see how they performed on his dairy property. The oats were planted at a rate of 100 kilograms per hectare towards the end of March and had a decent amount of rain to help with germination.
Irrigation was used to water the crop and the feed was soon available for the dairy cows to graze. A wire was used to strip graze the area and it was then spelled again for a second major grazing. Mr Brown said the plan was to lock up the area for a hay or silage crop in the spring, however the need for grazing at that time of year meant this was not an option. He said he would have liked to grow more Outback oats last season to be able to utilise it for grazing, hay or silage and would consider increasing his options in future years. Outback oats produced large wide leaves and the cows took to it readily and milked well off the feed.
Gill Brown, of Denman, in Outback oats which were used to feed dairy cows.
