Cereal · Poaceae (grass family)
Jai · जई · Avena sativa
Soft, juicy winter fodder that keeps milk flowing.
In North India oats are grown mainly as green fodder for milch animals from December to March, when green feed is short. Multi-cut varieties give two or three cuttings; the crop can also be left to ripen for grain or seed.
Panicle emergence and flowering · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
A cool-season crop that keeps growing through winter. Frost slows it; hot weather from March ends regrowth.
Sowing time
10 Oct – 15 Nov
Harvest
10 Dec – 15 Apr
120–140 days from sowing
Temperature
15–25 °C to grow
18–25 °C at sowing
Soil
Loam and clay loam are best; grows on most well-drained soils
pH 5.5–8
Seed rate
30–40 kg/acre
75–100 kg/ha
Spacing
22.5 cm rows
3–5 cm deep
Irrigations
3–5
3 critical stages
Yield
182–243 q/acre
450–600 q/ha
Season
Avoid waterlogged fields. Responds strongly to manure and nitrogen.
Seed to harvest
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 8
Sowing
Day 0–4
Seed absorbs moisture and swells.
Your job · Sow treated seed in moist soil with basal fertiliser.
Roots go down and the first leaf comes up.
Your job · Check the stand.
Several leaves form and crown roots develop.
Your job · First irrigation around 20–25 days. Hoe if weeds come up.
Many tillers make a thick, leafy crop.
Your job · Take the first cut at 55–60 days, 8–10 cm above ground. Irrigate and top-dress nitrogen right after.
New shoots grow from the stubble.
Your job · Take the next cut after 40–45 days of regrowth; repeat nitrogen and irrigation.
Open, drooping panicles emerge and flower.
Your job · Single-cut fodder is best cut at 50 % flowering. For a seed crop, stop cutting after the first cut.
Grains in the spikelets fill and harden.
Your job · One light irrigation if the soil is dry.
Panicles and stems turn golden; grains are hard.
Your job · Harvest the seed crop promptly to avoid shattering.
The seed
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One grain
≈ 10 mm
Seed rate
30–40 kg/acre
75–100 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
—
Field & sowing
Line sowing with a drill, or broadcasting in a well-prepared field
Layout
Flat beds
Row to row
22.5 cm
Plant to plant
—
Depth
3–5 cm
Feeding the crop
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Plus 10 t/ha (4 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
For 1 acre of Oats
What to buy
Urea
1.5
bags · 57 kg
DAP
0.5
bags · 35 kg
MOP
0.5
bags · 13 kg
Nutrients in it: N 32 kg · P₂O₅ 16 kg · K₂O 8.1 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 4 t
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Protection
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Signs · Colonies of small green insects on leaves; leaves curl and turn yellow.
Manage · Ladybird beetles usually manage them. Avoid chemical sprays on a fodder crop close to cutting; if needed use only a recommended product with its waiting period, as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Brown spots and streaks on leaves that later dry from the tips.
Manage · Use healthy treated seed and resistant varieties; cut the fodder a little early if blight spreads.
Signs · Orange powdery spots on leaves late in the season.
Manage · Grow tolerant varieties and harvest fodder on time.
Signs · Plants dry in patches on light soils.
Manage · Use rotted manure only and irrigate on time.
Signs · Few new shoots appear after the first cut.
Manage · Cut 8–10 cm above the ground (not at ground level) and give nitrogen and irrigation right after cutting.
Signs · Tall, heavy crop falls flat, especially in the seed crop after wind or irrigation.
Manage · Avoid excess nitrogen in seed crops and don't irrigate on windy days.
Common · Bathua, wild oat, senji, krishna neel
Harvest
A good crop gives
182–243q/acre
450–600 quintal per hectare
Green fodder over all cuts. A seed crop gives about 20–25 q/ha of grain.