Perrenial Rye

[cowman]

Does anyone have experience growing this crop as a forage? Grazing? There is a lot in the news about a new product developed at Lethbridge but it seems to me the counties have been growing it on the roadsides for years to control erosion. What kind of yields can you expect and what rates of fertilizer work best?

[Muttley]

I grew rye for grazing this past summer. I have done this in the past and appears to work pretty good. I use fall rye and plant it in the spring at about 2 bushels to the acre. This past dry year seen us have between 20 to 50 cow calf pairs on 160 acres divided into two 80 acre fields and then rotated the cows every two to four weeks. I really think that had we had good rain fall I would have had to stock heavier to keep it from heading out. Everytime a little shower fell the rye would jump up. Our weaning weights were a little lower on our heifers but the cows were the same or higher.I am already planning on planting more next year and from my past experiance I hope to get three or more years from grazing the rye before I need to reseed, this is as long as one does not let it head out. The only problem I found is one must spray for thistle in my area as the rye will not compete with it.