Oat

A plot of Oat grown as a fodder crop

Oat is a cereal that used to be the staple food for people in Scotland. In most other countries its main use is as a fodder for livestock. When oats are used for human consumption it is often in the form of oatmeal or rolled oats which are used to prepare oat porridge or oat cookies.

Oats are commonly used as a fodder for horses, which is reflected in many proverbs and quotes about oats that refer to horses.

Names

Scientific
   Avena sativa
English
   Oat
   Oats
Dutch
   Haver
Spanish
   Avena
French
   Avoine
German
   Hafer
Italian
   Avena

Taxonomy

Genus
   Avena
Family
   Poaceae
Order
   Poales

Basic information and facts

Origin:

Oats originate from the Near East.

Distribution:

Main production of oats is in the northern parts of Europe, Russia and Canada. Also in USA, China and Australia.

Plant:

Oats is an annual grass that is grown as a cereal crop.

Flowers:

Leaves:

Grains:

Climate and weather:

Oats are grown in regions with a temperate climate.

Pollination:

Height:

Spacing (close range)

Sowing of 175 kilo per hectare.

Spacing (wide range)

Sowing 125 kilo per hectare.

Propagation:

Otas are propagated by sowing the seeds, which can be sown in autumn (for harvesting in late summer) or in the spring (for harvesting in early autumn ). Seeds are usually broadcasted.

Insect pests:

Diseases:

Harvesting:

Uses:

Proverbs and Quotes

When you can’t get bread, oat-cakes are not amiss.
It’s a very proud horse that will not carry his oats.
He’s sowing his wild oats.
Give an ass oats and he runs after thistles.
Let him who dreads the sparrows sow no oats.
Oat bread to-day is better than cake to-morrow.
Asses carry the oats and horses eat them.
A cough will stick longer by a horse than a peck of oats.
A horse that will not carry a saddle must have no oats.
It is safe to lend barley to him who has oats.
It is a poor horse that is not worth his oats.
It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats.
Drive the horse with oats, not with curses and oaths.
Alimony is like buying oats for a dead horse. (Arthur Bear)
Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats; then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. (Fred Allen)

Recipes

Sorry, no oats recipe yet.

Crop categories

Cereals
Food crops
Temperate crops
Staple food

Pictures