[Crops 101] Oat - How to sow and harvest

This tutorial is all about Oat - How you plant and harvest this oatstanding crop. 

What You Need To Know About Oat

• Feed oat to your horses
• Oat can be processed into flour
• Deliver oat and other goods to the cereal factory to get some tasty cereals
• While harvesting oat, you can also produce straw
• Straw can be used for TMR and barns to produce manure
• Plant oat from March to April
• Oat is from start of July until the end of August ready for harvest

What You Need For Oat

Here, we discuss the equipment you'll need. If you're only after oat cultivation steps, you might want to move forward.

• You need a tractor with front loader attachment to operate tools and transport resources.
• You need a pallet fork to transport your resources.
• You need a cultivator to prepare your field for seeding.
• You need a seeder and seeds. 
• You need a fertilizer spreader, fertilizer, and lime. These things are optional, as they are only needed to increase your harvest. 
• You need a weeder to prevent weed from growing and spoiling your harvest.
• You need a combine harvester with a fitting grain header to harvest your canola.
• You need a trailer to transport your harvest.
• You need a special trailer to transport your grain header.

What You Need For Oat

If tool handling proves difficult, here’s some support that might help:

How To Operate Your Machinery

The same procedure applies to your combine and its compatible header.

1. Align your vehicle: Drive your vehicle next to the tool you want to use. Press the designated button to connect. 
2. If necessary, fill your machine with the required resource (seeds, fertilizer): Place the machine you want to fill next to the required resource and press the designated button to refill.
3. Drive to your field and use the machine: Just unfold the machine or vehicle, lower it (if needed) and you are ready to go!

7 Steps: How to plant oat

With this step-by-step guide, you harvest oats like a pro:

1. Applying Lime: Fill lime into your fertilizer spreader and cover your field.
2. Cultivate your field: Switch to your cultivator and prepare your field for seeding.
3. Plant your oat: Prepare your seeder and commence planting oat.
4. Fertilizing: Maximize your crop yield by fertilizing twice during two distinct growth phases of your plants.
5. Weeding: Get rid of weeds as soon as they show up. They mess with your yield and get tougher to kill the longer you wait. Early on, a weeder works just fine. Later, you’ll need a hoe or sprayer to deal with them.
6. Harvest: The fun part starts now: take a seat in your combine harvester and start harvesting oat. As streets are often narrow and crowded, we recommend transporting the header on a trailer. If you want to collect straw afterward, you need to activate the straw swath before harvesting.
7. Selling or keeping oats: With your trailer full of oats, you need to decide: Sell it at a selling point, process it into flour or cereal, or feed it to your horses? Your harvest, your choice!

That’s It!

Take care of your machinery and don't forget to clean them sometimes. Head back to the Academy for more tutorials. Keep on farming!