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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] cover crop oats, using feed oats

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] cover crop oats, using feed oats
  • Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:02:40 -0400


On Sep 20, 2009, at 2:07 PM, Wyatt Jones wrote:

<x-tad-smaller>I used Feed oats last year as a cover crop and it worked well, a lot cheaper too, I think it was about $10 for a 50 lb bag</x-tad-smaller>
 

Not an issue for most on this list, I know, but I'll mention it for those it might matter to:

I bought feed oats a few years ago for use as cover crop seed. When I opened the bags, they had a small amount of corn seed scattered through them.

Not a problem under most circumstances, except -- there was of course no way to tell whether the corn was GMO; and I'm certified organic, and can't plant GMO's. So I had to go through and pick out the corn seed, which was a significant nuisance.

Of course, I expect it could have been something other than corn -- the general point being that seed being sold as feed may well have a bit of something else in it; not likely to be something that would mess it up for use as feed, but might be something unwanted by the farmer intending to plant it. You could talk to the people you're buying the seed from, telling them what you want to use it for, and asking whether there's anything in the particular batch that they think might pose a problem.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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