Winter seed

[LadyRichards]

Yes i need to plant seed for the winter time. I live in Okeechobee Florida, and I heard rye grows real good, but I also heard that just rye grass is to strong for your horses. What should I plant for winter.

Thank You,
LadyRichards

 

[kolanuraven]

Best thing would be to find your local county agent there and ck with them.

 

[George]

I don't know yet how it will work but our county extention office is paying farmers in this area to plant winter rye to supplement the hay. I planted about three acres per cow so if it does what they say I will be alright.

Let me know how it works there as I have a 5 acre mini farm in Fort Drum and Mom says it is finally raining there. She wants me to get her a couple of horses but I told her if she wants horses she needs to come up here - - - it is hard to watch over an 82 year old woman from 1,200 miles away.

 

[RobertMac]

You mean like this...Elbon Rye 10-23-07

Rye seed is about the size of wheat, a little smaller. Ryegrass seed is very small. The difference is that there is ryegrass between the drilled rye in the picture. The larger seed has more food for the seedling which get the rye up and going a lot faster that the ryegrass...gets you grazing sooner. Another advantage of rye is that it grows at colder temperatures than any other cool season annual...if temps get above 35 degrees F and the sun shines, rye will grow some while ryegrass just sits there. Now the drawback to rye...it doesn't like wet feet. Too much rain will kill it, even on well drained sandy soil types if the rain persist too long. Where ever water stands in your pasture it will die. Obviously this hasn't been a problem for us in the Southeast the past few years. Rye will start heading out in March with low fertility and/or warm weather. These drawbacks are why I plant ryegrass with the rye. Ryegrass doesn't suffer the water problems and can grow into June under the right conditions. The mix makes a good, consistent winter pasture. Rye will also establish better if you are sod seeding.

Hope this helps. :wink:

 

[George]

Mine was drilled 10-13-07 and looks about the same - - - I have enough pasture ( I culled very heavy the last of July ) to last till Christmas or so. This should let it get to a good size before I turn them in.

I have never tried this before but if it works it might become part of my normal activities.

 

[Lenahorse]

We went with a 50-50 mix of rye & wheat, we have got 3/4" rain on it so far and the wheat is starting to come up a couple of inches, not much rye showing yet, we need more rain on it. Last year we had good luck with it despite the small amount of rain that we got. This will be used for our winter horse pasture.

 

[TSR]

You mean like this...Elbon Rye 10-23-07

Rye seed is about the size of wheat, a little smaller. Ryegrass seed is very small. The difference is that there is ryegrass between the drilled rye in the picture. The larger seed has more food for the seedling which get the rye up and going a lot faster that the ryegrass...gets you grazing sooner. Another advantage of rye is that it grows at colder temperatures than any other cool season annual...if temps get above 35 degrees F and the sun shines, rye will grow some while ryegrass just sits there. Now the drawback to rye...it doesn't like wet feet. Too much rain will kill it, even on well drained sandy soil types if the rain persist too long. Where ever water stands in your pasture it will die. Obviously this hasn't been a problem for us in the Southeast the past few years. Rye will start heading out in March with low fertility and/or warm weather. These drawbacks are why I plant ryegrass with the rye. Ryegrass doesn't suffer the water problems and can grow into June under the right conditions. The mix makes a good, consistent winter pasture. Rye will also establish better if you are sod seeding.

Hope this helps. :wink:

Another drawback here (TN) for rye-$13.50 per 50 lb bag, that was 2 years ago. I just finished drilling some rye and wheat about 2 wks ago and it is up about 2 inches now. We're still about 15 inches short on rain for this yr.

 

[RobertMac]

You mean like this...Elbon Rye 10-23-07

Rye seed is about the size of wheat, a little smaller. Ryegrass seed is very small. The difference is that there is ryegrass between the drilled rye in the picture. The larger seed has more food for the seedling which get the rye up and going a lot faster that the ryegrass...gets you grazing sooner. Another advantage of rye is that it grows at colder temperatures than any other cool season annual...if temps get above 35 degrees F and the sun shines, rye will grow some while ryegrass just sits there. Now the drawback to rye...it doesn't like wet feet. Too much rain will kill it, even on well drained sandy soil types if the rain persist too long. Where ever water stands in your pasture it will die. Obviously this hasn't been a problem for us in the Southeast the past few years. Rye will start heading out in March with low fertility and/or warm weather. These drawbacks are why I plant ryegrass with the rye. Ryegrass doesn't suffer the water problems and can grow into June under the right conditions. The mix makes a good, consistent winter pasture. Rye will also establish better if you are sod seeding.

Hope this helps. :wink:

Another drawback here (TN) for rye-$13.50 per 50 lb bag, that was 2 years ago. I just finished drilling some rye and wheat about 2 wks ago and it is up about 2 inches now. We're still about 15 inches short on rain for this yr.

That's 50lb/A Rye and 40lb/A ryegrass. Seed is cheap compared to no stand!!

 

[gberry]

RobertMac,

Did you no-till the rye (that's how it appears)? It looks pretty good. We've tried no-tilling ryegrass for the last couple of years in bermuda and bahia pastures with very little luck. I'm surprised at your seeding rate. I thought you were supposed to put about 100lbs rye to the acre.

 

[RobertMac]

RobertMac,

Did you no-till the rye (that's how it appears)? It looks pretty good. We've tried no-tilling ryegrass for the last couple of years in bermuda and bahia pastures with very little luck. I'm surprised at your seeding rate. I thought you were supposed to put about 100lbs rye to the acre.

You're correct...recommended rye seeding rate is 90-120lbs/A...ryegrass recommended rate is 20-30lbs/A. The important factors in establishing a stand is soil/seed contact, adequate moisture, proper temperature, and live seed. The rye is drilled with an old Farmall soybean drill. I call what I do as minimum till. The main function of these pastures is to grow winter forage...anything in the summer is a bonus. I've found that winter annuals and summer perennials aren't a good mix...one has to suffer for the other to do well. (Next year I will start looking at seeding summer annuals to develop a winter annual/summer annual program for these pastures with priority to winter pasture.)

The first step is to minimize plant litter. I run the cows through to let them eat all that is their that they like, then I clip what is left as close as possible(if necessary).

Next I disc the field. This is where a lot of people make a mistake. Proper planting depth is determined by the size of the seed. Ryegrass is an extremely small seed and therefore should be planted shallow. Disking too deep will let these seed get too deep into the soil to come out. Ideally, I would like to disk to a depth of only 1/2 to 1 inch...the purpose of disking is to create soil/seed contact and to suppress the summer plants that are there. Growing crops is all about giving the advantage to the desired plants.

Then I broadcast ryegrass seed and fertilizer and follow with the disk (VERY LITE) with something to smooth and pack. I chain two old rear tractor tires behind the disk...ideal tool would be a cultipacker.

Follow this with the drill and rye seed. Unless you have a new drill in good shape, most grain drills will plant to the depth of the loose soil...goes back to the importance of disking depth. Remember that the growing point of grass plants is at the soil surface...and the seeds should stay close to the same.

For you no-till people, one trick I learned from R.L. Dalrymple was to mix DAP (diammonium phosphate) in the hopper with the seed. DAP won't burn the seedlings like other fertilizers and will give them a kick to help them come up through a sod. I forget exactly how much I used, but it was less than 100lbs/A total mix. Google R.L. and you should be able to find that info.

 

[gberry]

It looks good. Thanks for the info on your planting technique. We have found that we have to disk to get a good stand, but I thought maybe rye would do a little better than ryegrass if we no-tilled it. We have a pretty good stand of rye this year by disking, broadcasting and then disking again. It's funny, but we have noticed the rye is thicker in areas where we disked twice after broadcasting. This is mainly at the ends of the field and may be because more seed was inadvertantly put out there. We planted ryegrass the same way but just drug is with a weighted piece of chain link fencing. This also seems to have made a good stand.

If you get a chance, I'd like to see some closer pictures that show the ryegrass in you pasture. Thanks again for the info.

 

[RobertMac]

Rye & Ryegrass 11-01-07

Close up

Backing up

Big picture

These were planted the same time...if it was only ryegrass, I wouldn't get any fall grazing.
This isn't fertile soil!

 

[gberry]

Thanks RobertMac. That looks real good. I know you'll be turning in on that rye before the ryegrass is ready. Have you notice any damage to the ryegrass because of this? I understand that rye is not as palatable as ryegrass and was thinking the cows might eat the smaller ryegrass and really set it back.