Latimer, Iowa (north central) | Hi Mark.
I have only tried oats as a nurse crop twice and both times it sounds like my results were similar to yours. My oat yields were significantly less were we had clover growing with them. In the year I was in the PFI trial I think there was 8 farms. The top 2 did not have a companion crop. Top 2 also put down more manure for fertilizer.
I hadn’t thought of cat coverage on insurance. Will look into, there are private hail and wind policies that cost a similar amount to corn per 100.
The 2000 gallon of hog manure should be about 100 units of N. Oats had always looked nice and even with good color all season. This past year, weather was a real challenge. The oats above where the manure was injected (VTI bar on bean stubble) looked better then between the rows. So I am experimenting with 1 ton chicken litter or a couple ton cattle compost in addition to try and feed microbes. TBD on results****
I am “renting”, in a 1 year scenario between neighbors, an additional 350 acres this year just to grow oats on. Not a long term rental, I am just farming the ground for 1 year, planting oats and double crop soybeans with radishes and turnips, and the next year the landowner is farming it again. A way for us to make some pretty good returns and the landowner to extend the diversity of their rotation without the stress or different work of a different crop. Should be a win for everyone. Will be roughly a 3 crop rotation on our actual land.
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High yield/high managed oats
