Northern Feed Oats
50 lb. Bag

Our Northern Feed Oats provide an excellent nutritional feed source for your horses, cattle sheep and goats. With a test weight of 42lbs per bushel (extra heavy), these oats are of excellent feed quality.

“Oats have traditionally been used as a horse feed because of their palatability …together with their high fiber content and low energy value (relative to other cereal grains). When supplemented with high quality hay and select micro nutrients oats provide a balanced nutritional profile for your horses.

“For cattle… Oats provide an ideal starter grain …because of their high hull and fiber content. Many experienced cattlemen prefer to start weaned calves on oats as the only or major grain, gradually shifting over to higher-energy grains as the animals become adapted to grain consumption.

“The greater bulk and lower energy density of oats compared to other grains is particularly valuable for helping calves learn to eat and getting older cattle started on grain safely. Oats may constitute 50-70 percent of the grain mix while cattle are becoming accustomed to a full feed. The level of oats should be reduced over time to 20-30 percent of the diet.

“Quality of oats, as measured by bushel weight, commonly varies inversely with temperatures during the kernel filling and ripening period of the grain. A traditional pattern in movement of feed oats is for high-quality, heavy-test-weight “race horse” oats to move from northern producing areas to south and easterly directions. Energy content of oats varies directly according to bushel test weight, which in turn is dependent upon size of groat (whole seed minus the hull) and kernel plumpness.”

(Stephen Boyles, Ohio State University, Ladon Johnson, North Dakota State University)