Grazing Annuals

[WiltonRanch]

I’m going to try grazing some spring seeded fall rye, oats, brassicas, vetch, clover, phacelia, rye grasses etc. Plan is seed early with a 40-15-0-5 blend. Give it 50 days while cows graze perennial pasture. Turn cows in for a couple weeks, pull out a couple weeks and back in. I’m new to this so any pointers appreciated

[grassfarmer]

Haven't tried it either but I'd be inclined to allow a longer recovery before re-grazing the mix. If you don't hit it too hard the first time you should get substantial regrowth i'd think.

[WiltonRanch]

Haven't tried it either but I'd be inclined to allow a longer recovery before re-grazing the mix. If you don't hit it too hard the first time you should get substantial regrowth i'd think.

Good to know. Plan to graze the rye the next spring as well. Then seed a feed crop.

[nicolaas]

take animals off so crown can recover before winter. no later than 3rd week September. you will have a yield reduction , but still pencils out good due to the grazing aspect.

[nicolaas]

or you could silage/ bale it the following june

[woodland]

Or seed the fall rye in the fall and graze it starting in May. Only problem is if there's lots of deer they paw at it all winter and kill patches out. Here is our yearlings moved out May 4 and it was almost too late since the heads started coming shortly after. Never expected it to be ready that early. It got grazed another 3 times that year before it got nuked with glyphosate in September. It was a little more expensive than traditional grass but a great way to rotate a 30 year old field.

[WiltonRanch]

Great info. Now I’m getting some ideas. Spray out some old grass and direct seed rye and fertilizer into it. Then graze following spring and a crop of canola and back into a grass etc.

[nicolaas]

Have you ever been able to get good establishement seeding into old sod? I haven't been able to. I have an old conservapak. With cost of fertilizer, I figure may as well disk it 4/5 times and seed into the lumps. I guess it depends on soil type, type of seeder, weather conditions of the year.

[WiltonRanch]

Have you ever been able to get good establishement seeding into old sod? I haven't been able to. I have an old conservapak. With cost of fertilizer, I figure may as well disk it 4/5 times and seed into the lumps. I guess it depends on soil type, type of seeder, weather conditions of the year.

I’ve never seeded into sod. Lots done here. Spray late summer, seed next spring. What we’ve broke is so rough it needs tillage.

[smcgrath76]

We have been switching some crop (annuals for grazing land) back into grass and have had to convert some grass to annual crop for winter feeding. We have been doing it a bit different. We don't spray in the fall, graze it hard in the spring, then rent a high speed disc and do two passes over the sod. then we have been seeding corn into the lightly tilled sod (about 1-3 days later depending on when the planter can get there). We then spray the RR corn as normal at about a week/2 weeks after seeding and maybe a follow up pass if needed. Our neighbours and the guy that runs the planter think we're nuts, but this year I took 100 AUGD an acre of grass before we tilled, and then picked up roughly 200 days of corn grazing and got my land converted. Don't know if it would work everywhere or not.
We have also been experimenting with spring grazing grass into submission and then direct drilling annuals (Noble 2000 no till hoe drill), but the jury is still out on that one, as we have a lot of roots to regrow the grass from.

[GDR]

My 2 cents. Have had better luck grazing fall triticale than fall rye, once rye starts to head out they'd almost starve to death before they eat it. Tried annual rye grass last year, it worked good and did regrow this spring so not sure why they call it annual. Grows thick and seed is cheap.

As for seeding into sod we've done it quite a bit but only RR canola and oats. My biggest advise there is add about 50lbs N to what you think the crop needs. Really seems to tie up N worse than the same field broke up. We use a JD disc drill and germination has been good

[poorboy]

Did lots of this years ago. Don’t seed the oats too heavy. You need to graze the oats often enough that they don’t start to make stems. You want the oats to carry you till the rye or winter wheat get big enough. Because they won’t make stems easy you can rest the rye/winter wheat longer once the oats starts to fade.

Legumes don’t do much in the mix. Duration is too short to get much establishment or benefit from the rhizobia.

Takes more fertilizer than you think.

It’s a moisture hog, if moisture is at a premium then kill it as soon as you don’t need it any more or next years crop will be poor. This is not perennial pasture, you want to graze this stuff hard and often.

I have clay soil and had too much foot rot problems in wet years and eventually went back to perennial pasture.

[WiltonRanch]

Did lots of this years ago. Don’t seed the oats too heavy. You need to graze the oats often enough that they don’t start to make stems. You want the oats to carry you till the rye or winter wheat get big enough. Because they won’t make stems easy you can rest the rye/winter wheat longer once the oats starts to fade.

Legumes don’t do much in the mix. Duration is too short to get much establishment or benefit from the rhizobia.

Takes more fertilizer than you think.

It’s a moisture hog, if moisture is at a premium then kill it as soon as you don’t need it any more or next years crop will be poor. This is not perennial pasture, you want to graze this stuff hard and often.

I have clay soil and had too much foot rot problems in wet years and eventually went back to perennial pasture.

Great info.