Annual cereal for grazing?

[amazed]

What works best for summer grazing? Winter wheat, fall rye, oats, barley?

To many cows and need more pasture.

[kato]

I heard somewhere that spring seeded rye works well. It grows back after they graze it down.

We haven't tried it ourselves, though. Maybe someone else out there has?

We fall graze corn. That works well, but doesn't help much for the summer.

[greybeard]

Barley and oats give you the best grazing in May and June [long cool days]. You can seed Fall Rye with it to give you better late season [late August thru September, short cool days].Regrowth in July and August looks like silage aftermath. Don’t let the Rye go into shot blade or it will winterkill. German millet will grow in the heat of summer. I think it needs good moisture as it is shallow rooted.
Has anyone ever seen bin-run corn? I know it looks like a total wreck for grain, but my cows probably wouldn’t notice if it yielded 6 or 8 Te and they could graze on it till Christmas. I can’t get too excited about spending $12000 on 100 acres of corn with the cash flow I have now.
Amazed; you may check with the forage specialist at Sask Ag and Food at North Battleford .I appreciate comments on this one. He’s tried pretty well everything with grazing annuals.

[cakadu]

You can also check out the following link for the Western/Forage Beef group at:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/newslett.nsf/homemain/wfbg?opendocument

Another avenue to try is:

www.foragebeef.ca

Good luck!

[PureCountry]

On the Ropin' the Web site - www1.agric.gov.ab.ca - they gave results of field trials and said that oats was still the best for an annual cereal. But I can't remember the details. It's real easy to look up though. There is some info. available from Prairie Seeds, too, about Grazing Turnips. It sounds like it has potential. Seed ran about $2.70/lb. and rates were 4lb/acre, or 5-6lb for broadcasting. They say the cows can graze the top-growth right into the dirt, and if there's a bit of moisture once you pull them off, the turnip bulb will provide a good second grazing in the fall. When our local rep comes by in a few weeks, we're going to look at some fields to see how it might fit our program.

[ivbinconned]

What works best will depend on your annual rainfall...some things working better than others.
Dry land not to far north of Saskatoon over the years I have tried barley, oats, and rye grass. Oats worked out the best. It can take a good beating and come back good.

[ivbinconned]

I forgot...have tried fall rye too...worked good on first flush poor on second and tough to get rid of when you don't want it.