Barley or Oat hay bales for cow/calf

Personally I prefer barley. I like the haymaker barley and they have an oats too so I would suggest that based on my experience with that variety of barley. With any of the green feed I knock it down just slightly before milk. As for timing, depends on what you have going on for other crops etc. I put my barley in first or second week of june since fall is sort ofquitefor me. 16' haybine swath takes about 2 weeks to dry down weather depending of course. I don't own a roller and the fertilizer is all natural from the cows.

Track down Chuck Toney, he's on here but not sure how often, but he's well versed in what you want to know and is from Gull Lake area I believe, so has some real hands on experience with probably much the same circumstances and climate as you are in.

Myself I prefer silage, and thats chopped, not bales, but time and place for greenfeed too. Something that may come into play for you as well is if you have the capability of doing some swath grazing as well. I have done it, I hate the waste, but it does work under the right circumstances.

Which is best barley or oats depends on how you feed and what if anything you supplement with and also, who and what you are feeding. I prefer to have my silage what one might call a bit on the cool side(less energy), as then I don't have to restrict volume available and provide other less potent roughage to offset it. For myself, its easier to simply supplement with additional grain to only those who require it. The jest of that is if you feed a "hot" feed to say pregnant cows, that is going to get reflected in calf size come calving season, whereas if the roughage is less potent, you simply adjust how much grain they get, if any is even required, and keep things at a level where it should be. My point is, you don't feed pregnant cows the same rations you feed steers. Base your feed on who is going to be eating the majority of it.

I seldom ever do silage that is straight one crop or another, I prefer a blend and try to have that mix that it will suit my needs. Agreed with Beer, barley is a more potent feed than oats, however with oats you can have a lot more volume on same acres and inputs, but its of lesser feed value. This is where you do what works for you. Oats and peas mixed is an excellent feed and while more expensive to plant than barley, it will out produce it in feed value and volume. Again, the feed value of it can be adjusted by changing the ratio of the two. This is where experience and more comes into play. I never like to say, do this or do that, even for myself, year to year it changes due to weather and more. Normally I do straight oats and mix that in a 2/3 1/3 mix with alfalfa grass mix. One thing about cereal silage is it can at times be a bitch to pack, adding that alfalfa not only adds feed value to mix, but also makes things more manageable in the pit or pile. Now with greenfeed thats not an issue, but it shows how what you do depends on what gonna work for you.

Greenfeed myself barley is best for higher feed value, oats can be a bit stemmy if they grew really tall. I like to take greenfeed at very late milk, very early dough stage for either. I do not run mine thru a crimper, I have found that shells some out even in milk stage. I have a 1475 as well myself with a 2300 series head and it pisses off that one can no longer removed the crimpers on those headers. Its for that very reason I want to get back something like my old 1116 Speedrower, as an auger header makes the best swath for baling or chopping cereals. I have heard of guys backing off the springs and putting spacers between the roller stops on those newer NH headers, not something I have ever done, so can't comment on actual results, but appearently it does work. I cut all my silage or greenfeed with a Macdon MultiCrop Special on my swather. It has the overshot style augers and I find makes a better swath for the chopper or bale than the draper. Also its the smaller of the two at 18 feet.

Again the later ones takes the crop, the more potency it has, so if you want more like hay, take it in milk, more feed value, just when its turning dough.
And mixing peas with oats also makes damm nice greenfeed too, but takes a looooooong time to dry down.

As for tub grinding, barley will grind easier than oats. Like Beer, nothing on mine except cowshit. In fact over two thirds of my silage is fed where the cereals comes from, the rest gets hauled there in the shitspreader. Seldom ever spray it either, as its all done on tillage and most usually seeded with my old Morris Seedrites and nothing survives that rod on the back of those, so even things like thistle aren't a problem. Now there again, mine is being taken green and chopped. Letting it dry for baling, yea that might need to be sprayed under some circumstances.
I usually like to have it seeeded early June at the latest, usually lets me get it out of the way before combining.

And last but not least, I know the cowboys will say otherwise, but being old has a few advantages, experience is one of them lol, if you use barley, do you and your cows a favor and use smooth awned varieties. I think that stuff Beer was talking about actually doesn't have any. Myself I am still using the old six row malt Bonanza for silage barley, and Derby for oats. The fact that I even have Bonanza should verify I ain't no spring chicken lol. And of course you can leave some to combine, often once I'm done for silage, the balance left is either combined or swath grazed.

Thanks for the great info Albertabuck, after doing a little more research I think im leaning towards the barley route. Bonus is that'll mellow the land out. Swath grazing would work out for me on a couple of fenced off fields I have with watering holes. Im not setup for silage and would have to be baled greenfeed. But I also like the idea of oats and peas mixed in but the drying factor could be a problem the odd year. Any of you guys do the yellow greenfeed where guys will spray it out with round up and cut/bale within 10-14 days? I could also see that working out for me on wetter years which I hope comes around sooner than later.