Can you put oats on spring plowed hay ground?

A farmer neighbor (a very knowledgable man) reccomended not planting oats on spring plowed alfalfa because it was too hard to get a good seedbed.

Anybody out there have any information about this? Are there any less damaging alternatives to moldboard plowing that could work with 50hp or less tractors?

The chemical solutions might work the best, but we farm organically, so they aren't an option.

Maybe I'll look into borrowing a neighbors planter and putting in some corn.

The negatives for oats:

Oats needs to be seeded in the ground REAL soon now. You need to plow, work up the lumps, & catch a rain to mellow the soil. By then the window for oats will be over, & you will not get much yield.

Going to be real hard to get the ground leveled & mellowed for oats even with favorable conditions.

Oats comes up pretty uneven in spring plowing, you will have light testweight & lower yield, uneven drydown.

Too much N from the alfalfa may cause the oats to grow too heavy & flatten.

Weed control could be interesting to say the least, as there is generally a lot of grasses in an old alfalfa field & this will outgrow & smother your oats - can't cultivate, and really no chemical options in oats.

On the other hand, corn has up to a month before you lose big time on yield so you can get the land in shape, weed control will have more options, & the N from the alfalfa will be put to good use.

Of course, just this year conditions will be perfect for this to work with oats, & the corn will turn out lousy.... Luck of the draw on the weather, but _normally_ corn would be a much better choice to follow spring plowed alfalfa.

--->Paul

Different soils might be different, but around here that's the best.

--->Paul