When is my grain ready?

I have some Secale montana - 'perennial' rye that has some lovely ears in it's second year.



I want to try and save the grain to re-sow and increase my plants.  How do I know the grain is ripe enough to be viable? It seems to be plump, but very soft at the moment.  I'm worried that anyday now the birds will spot them and I will lose the lot.

Tough to decide on this one.  Relative to wheat, you are likely at the transition point from soft to hard dough stage.  

https://extension.umn.edu/growing-small-grains/spring-wheat-growth-and-development-guide

For harvesting, it's probably best to be in the hard kernel stage, but as you noted it's a trade-off with bird predation.  If being able to save enough for re-seeding is a main goal, perhaps put screen-type netting over a patch of it to make sure those don't get carried off.  Good luck!

Thanks for the link John.  Maybe of use to me in the future. I guess that as all I need to do is get the grain to survive the winter and germinate, it doesn’t need to be fully ripe as long as it is mature and I sow it straight away....