Questions about Growing Winter Rye

[N1ST]

I think I want to grow winter rye this fall, but it's new to me. The local Agway sells it. Is this a grain or a grass? I understand it can be cut at about 12-16" and tilled under to improve the soil. If it's a grass, can it also be used as hay for animal feed? If it's a grain, can it could be used as human food (cereal, bread making, etc.)? Any info you can share about this would be appreciated.

 

[Podunkadunk]

I plant it for the horses and deer during the winter months. I plant rye grass. There is also plain rye, or cereal rye which is a grain crop, but I've never planted it before.

Easy to do. It'll almost grow on concrete. You can till, but don't have to really break it up much...just enough to expose some dirt. Add some 13-13-13 in with it and scatter. No need to cover up. It'll come up quick. Plant when still warm, before you're already having cold snaps.

I don't know why you COULDN'T bale rye grass...the only problem I can see is how would it ever dry out after fluffed and before baling, I mean it being winter and all, not a lot of good hot sunshine, etc....

A lot of farmers plant rye grass around here in their fields in the winter. It helps alleviate erosion of an open field and it also replaces nitrogen in the soil.

Podunk

 

[Bird]

When I was just a kid, my dad used to disc an area and sow rye grass and vetch seed for winter pasture for our milk cow and my horse. The vetch blossoms also provided winter food for our honey bee hives.

I've not personally known of anyone harvesting rye for the grain, but I've known lots of folks who used it for pasture, and I'm among those who cut and baled a lot of it for hay in more recent years.

 

[EddieWalker]

Don't know about your part of the world, but here in East Texas, we spred rye grass out in our bermuda grass just after Holloween so that we can have green lawns all winter long. Just toss it out and it will grow.

I've heard that people who raise cattle have to be careful about letting their cows get into it, since they will eat too much and it will kill them. Something about digesting it, but except for seeing dozens of dead cows on the news and them saying it was from the rye grass, I don't know any more then that. I've tried it in food plots, but never seen anything eat it. Again, that might be a local thing.

For winter food plots, winter wheat is supposed to be good. My goal it to try it this year and then plow it in before plainting cow peas in the spring.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, I had neighbors who sowed winter wheat or winter rye for pasture just depending on which seed was cheapest at the time. As for killing cattle, I think the only problem would be the same as with Johnson Grass. You know we used a lot of Johnson Grass hay and we had cattle grazing on Johnson Grass, but if the cattle were not accustomed to it and happened to get into it when it was pollenating, it could bloat and kill them. I don't recall hearing of rye hurting any cattle, but would guess if it happened, it was pollen that caused gas and bloating.

 

[TedLaRue]

N1ST,

I'm in northern WV which is south of you, but we're only at most one plant-hardiness zone different from you. What we call "winter rye" is generally used as a cover crop. It is a cereal rye, not a grass, and it will produce grain if you let it mature.

I plant Wheeler Rye (one of the winter ryes) as a cover crop in my vegetable gardens in the fall. By early March it is usually only a few inches tall, but when it's time to plow it's usually 12" to 15" tall.

I once let a small section of it mature, and it did produce grain which was quite tasty. I ate quite a bit of it just shaking it out in my hand every time I passed by, but it was more like a casual treat than "human consumption".

The cereal ryes supposedly have an allelopathic property which suppresses weeds. I'm a believer in that because last fall I didn't manage to get the rye sowed, and I was fighting weeds all this spring.

Of course if you till it in, it improves the soil.

One negative thing about it is that it keeps your soil damp/wet and probably cool in the spring. Wet soil could delay plowing. Cool soil isn't good for seed germination. I usually try to mow off the rye a few days before I want to plow to let the soil dry out.

As others have said, it's easy to grow. I usually till lightly in the fall, and then I spread the rye, but sometimes I just spread it without prior tilling. Rye will germinate at only a few degrees above freezing, but one extension-service website recommends sowing by October 1st in north-east USA.

Overall, I think the positives outweigh the negatives as far as using it for a cover crop.

This website lists a lot of forage and cover crops with information about them (this is a commercial website but has useful information).

The "Cover Crop Database" also has a lot of information (non-commercial .edu site).

 

[Egon]

I plant winter rye all the time on the Play Farm. It does act as good deer feed. In the fall and early winter they will grazed it down to ground level. As it grows next spring they again graze it down and then move on. The rye recovers and grows into a cereal crop which I work under to increase the ground tilth. I have no means of harvesting other than a scythe.

There may come a day when just enough gets harvested so I can grind some flour for bread!

 

[charlz]

There are two general types of rye grass: perennial rye grass and annual rye grass. Perennial rye grass is what you would find in lawns and annual is what you use for a cover crop. With 'improved' varieties that line is getting grayed out but pick the right one for what you want to do.

 

[Charlesaf3]

I plant annual rye for green mulch up here with good results. Looks like grass the way I treat it - mow occasionally, and then till under. Stops erosion and the weeds getting in as well.

I pay $1.02 a pound for 50 pound bags - how bad a price is that, anyone know?

 

[Podunkadunk]

I plant annual rye for green mulch up here with good results. Looks like grass the way I treat it - mow occasionally, and then till under. Stops erosion and the weeds getting in as well.

I pay $1.02 a pound for 50 pound bags - how bad a price is that, anyone know?

I paid roughly 38.00 bucks a bag (50lb) last September for annual rye. That included tax. The stuff I got was harvested in Oregon. I'm wondering how much it's gone up since I bought last year. It's the fertilizer that has skyrocketed!

Podunk