Oat hay hectarage has increased in recent years averaging 50,000 hectares over the last 5 years. Our objective was to evaluate forage yield and quality of common oat cultivars. Nine oat cultivars; 2 early, 2 mid, and 2 late-maturing, 2 forage, and 1 naked; and 2 experimental dwarf lines were evaluated for dry matter yield and CP, ADF, ADL, NDF, RFV, and IVDMD in 2002, 2003, and 2004 at Fargo, ND. Forage yield was highest from late-maturing cultivars with Paul, the naked oat, the highest. Forage yield of forage oat cultivars was similar to the early maturing cultivars. ND000461, a dwarf, yielded similar to mid- and late-maturing cultivars, but ND001306 was the lowest yielding. Paul had the lowest ADF and NDF and the highest RFV of cultivars tested. AC Assiniboia had the highest forage quality of standard grain types tested. ND001306, ND000461, AC Assiniboia, and Paul had lower ADL and higher IVDMD than other culitvars. We conclude that Paul should be used for the forage oat of choice and AC Assiniboia as a dual grain and forage oat.