Oat hay

Howdy guys, looking for some opinions here;

I have around 30 acres of oats, seeded as a cover crop for a reworked hay field.

This is common practice around here, in a typical year you can cut the oats and what grass has grown,

and bale it as hayonce it has dried sufficiently. (we call it oat hay)

 

This has been far from a typical year though, lots of rain through June (normal) but also July (usually hot and dry last 2 weeks of July)

We just managed to get our dry hay in before another week of rain, now I'm worried we won't get the weather to dry the oat hay.

 

Usually I wait to cut the oat hay until the oats are in the milk stage. As of this morning, I estimate 1 -2 more weeks for milk stage.

 

What are the possible results if I cut now, as we have a stretch of good hot weather that started today.

Will the benefits of having oats in the hay be negated by cutting it too green?

Will it even dry enough to be safe to bale up?

Oat hay