A Little More about Oats

The yield of the oat crop would vary, 60 bushels per acre being considered a very good yield. The average was probably closer to 45 bushels per acre, and might be for poorer land and cultivation be 25-30 bushels per acre. Uncle Carl described one year back in the 1890s when the yield was very good—90 bushels per acre. It may have been a year following a drought when the yield was low. He described the grain crushed down by the big “bull” wheel when the field was opened up as just a solid row of oat kernels on the ground.

Oats is not grown much nowadays since the monetary return is poorer than with soybeans (even though the current average yields are well above 60 bushels per acre). Oats was used mostly as a feel grain particularly for the horses when they were being used for fieldwork. Actually, nutritionally, it is a better feed than corn or soybeans.

The “bull” wheel of the binder was the large wheel near the middle of equipment that provided the motive power for the sickle and binding mechanism.