Oats and Other Forage Crops

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Please check back later for the full article. Oats and the other small grains have been “rediscovered” with the drive towards intensifying agricultural production, integrating crops and livestock into diversified systems, and increasing environmental stewardship. Globally, oats and other winter annual small grains such as wheat, cereal rye, triticale, and barley, have been used primarily for grain production. The secondary market following grain production has been restricted to straw, used mainly as livestock bedding. In regions where livestock are economically important, oats and the other annual small grain crops can be used as a grazed forage or fodder crop, hay, or silage. There are several characteristics that make oats and other small grains suitable for multiple agricultural uses. All the small grains are fairly easy to establish, have rapid growth, can be productive, and have a high nutritional value for livestock. Recent improvements in cultivar development have allowed oats and wheat to be grown across a broader range of stressful environmental conditions. Similarly, cultivar development in oats and wheat has improved grazing tolerance, which is important in dual-purpose systems that emphasize both grazing and grain production. On a worldwide scale, oats and other annual small grains are economically and environmentally important forage crops, especially when used as focused components within intensified agricultural systems. Challenges include development of improved cultivars of oats and other small grains for use in intensified agricultural systems, including both grazing and no grazing, that serve as short rotation crops, dual-purpose crops, or are designed to mitigate a specific environmental issue.