WHAT USE ARE OATS?
Oats have a wide adaptation and can be successfully grown in all Western Australian agricultural areas. Where oats surpass other cereals is in frost prone areas, acid soils, and wet to waterlogged soils. Oats are not affected by the same leaf diseases as other cereals and are more tolerant to Take-all. The dominance of oats in the hay market is a result of it’s finer, more digestible stems and higher biomass. Oats are an excellent early competitor with weeds and are often used to remove grasses from pastures. The grain is relatively safe to feed to ruminant livestock. Oats are a lower risk crop than the other cereals and regarded as “an easy crop to grow”. There are good markets for oats both domestically and internationally but the price paid to growers fluctuates considerably from $140/t to $80/t. High pre-seeding prices result in increased oat sowings but when pre-seeding prices are low, less oats are sown. This results in varied levels of production. Due to the variability in produ
