OATS IN MICHIGAN 



Special Bulletin No. 101 



F. cox, FARM CROPS SECTION. 



The climate of Michigau is extremely favorable to oat production, 

 the average Michigau season providing ample rainfall and a sufficiently 

 long growing season, usually free from extremely hot or dry periods, 

 for the maturity of the highest yielding and heaviest varieties. Michi- 

 gan also offers extensive areas of loams and clay loams, high in fertility 

 and retentive of moisture, which are splendidly adapted to oats. The 

 acreage planted to oats has undergone a marked increase during the 

 past 20 years, due largely to the strong demand for oats and the in- 

 creased acreage of corn, beans, beets and potatoes — cultivated crops 

 which are harvested in the fall too late during the majority of seasons 

 for adequate preparation of the laud and safe planting to wheat. Oats 

 are well suited to Michigau rotations including these cultivated crops, 

 since the land is usually in excellent condition for fitting for oats, and 

 because of the fact that Ked Clover, Alsike, Timothy, Alfalfa, and 

 Sweet Clover, etc., if rightly handled, can be seeded with reasonable 

 safety with oats. 



At the present time oats are secoiul to corn in acreage. During 1918 

 the area occupied by oats was 1, (558,000 acres and the production 

 66,320,000 bushels, or an average yield of 40 bushels per acre. In 1919, 

 an extremely unfavorable year, the acreage harvested was 1,475,000 and 

 the production .36,875,000 bushels, with an average yield of 25 bushels 

 per acre. The average yield for the past 15 years, 1905 to 1919 in- 

 clusive, is 32.1 bushels from an average acreage of 1,459,472. 



Michigan's leading counties in oat production are those in the south- 

 eastern quarter of the state, ranging north through the ''Thumb" area. 

 A close study of oat production in Michigan brings out the fact that 

 certain farmers produce de})eudably much larger yields under similar 

 soil and climatic conditions than a majority of their neighbors. The 

 facts conveyed in this bulletin are based on observation of the methods 

 employed by these most successful oat growers, and experiments per- 

 formed by tlie Michigan Experiment Station. 



It is strikingly apparent that tremendous possibilities are offered for 

 increasing the profit from oats under existing marketing conditions, 

 and placing tlie crop on a much more dependable basis by the more 

 wide-si)road employment of the practices of the best oat growers, such 

 as the planting of high yielding varieties, applications of Acid Phos- 

 phate, the treatment of seed with Formaldeliyde, and the better prepar- 

 ation of the seed bed. 



