Why do Annual Ryegrass? Here is my current list of reasons…

Using a grazing type of rye grass out in the pasture has many more benefits than I ever realized. I am still nerding out/learning about it but am sure my list of reasons will grow.

1) The most obvious is that it grows aggressively in a season that is out of phase to most other grasses. Which means it will lessen that hay bill.
2) It turns out that rye grass is some high quality forage both nutritionally and via sugars that remain in the form of sugar unlike other grasses… aka it will help your animals put on/or maintain weight easier through the Winter. They allegedly get their daily nutritional requirements after just 2 to 3 hours of grazing on it. Apparently Rye grass finished beef is AMAZING flavor wise.
3) Rye grass is one of the few that will establish easily via simple broadcasting of the seed. No need to till or drill it in. Just broadcast into your pasture ahead of the animals grazing on it.
4) Rye grass laughs at hard pan clay. When planted in late Summer… it will form a dense root mass that is 12” to 18” deep by late the next Spring.
5) Rye grass exudes chemicals that suppress certain weeds.
6) Rye grass exudates literally melt that chemical bond between clay particles. They say you can expect it to bust up about an inch of hard pan clay every year a good stand is formed.
7) if you allow it to go to seed… it comes back with a vengeance each Fall. I know from experience on that one.

Pic is of my Rye grass stand this past Spring. There was Orchard grass, Timothy Grass, and LOTs of red clover that was buried in there. It came on over the following month or two as the annual ryegrass faded.

Sign me up for team rye grass. Haven't had any cattle the past 2 years but have been using it as a winter cover crop in the garden. It's very effective, cheap, & easy to use. Almost every cattle rancher & horse owner around here uses it. Many folks with no animals do too. I think because it's bright green when everything else is brown & because of the soil conditioning it provides.

@Mike….

Come to think of it… several of the Conventional Farmers on my road have begun using Rye grass over the last several years. One in particular has been catching my eye (he was the first one to do it as far as I know/OR, he is the one who owns all the land and has expanded it beyond a test plot to a broader program)

He has been doing a pure stand of Rye grass the past couple of years in this one field. No plowing and no drill planting. It just comes back from seed it seems).

He puts beef on his massive fields for the Winter (mild winters here in Chesapeake, VA). Extremely low stocking density… like 10 max head for a 50+ acre field.Then in the late Spring, he lets the grass go to seed and brown a little before plowing it in and planting soy or corn. I think he then either puts them onto the dry lot… or takes a harvest and gets new calves on the cheap.

All he has fencing wise is a hard wooden corner post on each end of his field. Then installs a single strand of barbed wire in with step-in posts each Fall. It may even be electrified IDK.

This year, several more large fields have turned up growing a stand of Rye grass. No cows on them yet though. Grass is not growing as well either. They are probably giving the grass a bump by not grazing until it becomes well established with a seed bank for every year.

Are you planting this over your summer grass? Or just establishing a second field.

Joe Hallmark wrote:Are you planting this over your summer grass? Or just establishing a second field.

Some folks with mega acreage will do a large plot with just different annuals in different stages to test them out on. Some Summer annuals, winter, fall, and spring. Different things for different seasons.

However, I am just getting animals onto my new property it was established Summer grasses only. Bermuda, Bahia, and some summer annuals.

I spent the first Summer re-claiming the pastures. Last summer, I just mowed my 8AC over and over each time it got above knee high.

Then, last Fall I mowed short and over seeded with a mix that had orchard grass, Timothy, Rye, red clover, and I added white clover. I only did this on a few acres sadly. It was the mud hole patches from the prior owner (see pic above in first post)

Let it grow and do its thing until late this past Summer when we got animals. With occasional mowing back down to 6” with the bush hog this time. Letting thing seed when I could.

My mud hole patches are now firm and lush green. I still want to use a sub-soiler later on

The Rye did best in the boggy areas with clay underneath . The dry/hard clay/brick hills did well also, but I now am using the manure spreader to attack those areas to give them their bump they need.

We are also feeding our horse and calves good hay of orchard grass, Timothy, and alfalfa. All sorts of seed in there that was germinating last Fall.

In the future I shall expand my Rye area (as well as orchard, Timothy, and white clover).

If I were to get all of my pasture like this, I would not need hay for the cows at all until maybe January or Feb… but then would be good again starting in early March if there is Rye in there. We have mild winters here.

My calves fight me on passing by that rye grass field when I rotate them around. It is like Candy to them. Lol

For now I really need them to finish attacking my Winter stockpile in the fields so I can plant some more grass seed before spring.

Those dormant summer grass stockpiles are THICK and they don’t like them…. But they eat it.

They get the good hay every night though when I bring them back. There are a lot of bears around th e house and my Dexter calves are young still.

Is 'rye' and 'rye grass' the same thing?

This might just be the thing I need! We're in the Ozarks - so heavy clay & rock. Combined with some trees for tree hay,  this could really take the edge off my feed costs, at the same time it helps me break up some of this clay and build healthy soil for my gardens. It's there a specific rye seed to look for? Or, does all rye come with these benefits?

Rye (the grain) is different than rye grass. Sometimes rye grass is called winter rye. It is cheap & easy to grow. Throw it on the ground shortly before a moderate rain & forget about it. At least it is that easy around here. That cold spell a couple weeks ago didn't faze it one bit.

Gary Numan wrote:Is 'rye' and 'rye grass' the same thing?

Rye and Rye grass are two different things.

One is a grain and the other is a grass.

Here is a good read up on this subject…

https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/beef/3039/17303

Carla Burke wrote:This might just be the thing I need! We're in the Ozarks - so heavy clay & rock. Combined with some trees for tree hay,  this could really take the edge off my feed costs, at the same time it helps me break up some of this clay and build healthy soil for my gardens. It's there a specific rye seed to look for? Or, does all rye come with these benefits?

From my understanding… there are certain cultivars of annual ryegrass that hold up better to grazing than others.

I would do a Google search OR just look at the pasture blends they sell at Tractor Supply for some specific cultivars. I have seen a few different types in the blends I threw down.

There is definitely benefits to using rye grass to change soil for the better. It is often used for cover crops just for that.  

One source with different ryes.

https://www.trueleafmarket.com/search?type=article%2Cproduct%2Cpage&q=winter+rye

Here are some good ones.



And….

Here is a comparison picture. The right side is leaf mulch. Center is rye grass. Left side is turnips & some other cover crops after the freeze whacked them down. The color is more vibrant green than this picture shows. Didn't see a single weed in it. Plenty of weeds where nothing was planted for winter.

@ Mike

That is a massive difference! I bet by the end of Spring…. It will be a 5’ to 6’ tall jungle of seed heads in there for the rye grass.

Carla Burke wrote:This might just be the thing I need! We're in the Ozarks - so heavy clay & rock. Combined with some trees for tree hay,  this could really take the edge off my feed costs, at the same time it helps me break up some of this clay and build healthy soil for my gardens. It's there a specific rye seed to look for? Or, does all rye come with these benefits?

Hi Carla, i have been growing winter ryes in the last couple years. The feed store usually carries big bag of that in fall and winter. I broadcast the grains around and they sprout quite easily. The green leaves provide food for the chickens in winter time. I couldn't turn them under in spring time because the roots are too extensive so i just let them finish the life cycle.  By May/June the following year it is time for harvesting. Chickens love eating the grains too, i have to save some seeds for regrowing before they eat them all.

Given that rye grass is actively growing in winter when most broadleaf plants are dormant, it is valueable  for feeding the soil microbes and building healthy soil.

It's the second year I planted winter wheat and winter rye, so I could harvest grains. In 2021/2022 I got only 270 mm of rain and winter wheat needs at least 400 to develop. The heads of both plants could not fully develop, so I let my five sheep there and they had tasty forage for 4 months. This year I already got almost 500 mm of rain and I hope I will be able to harvest grains for me and for the chickens.

I use the spring tooth harrow then nail harrow and then plant the seeds manually and then do two runs with nail harrow to cover the seeds. I do it just before the first rains in October or November. Unfortunately the winter is the time when all native species grow, so the wheat and rye is heavily mixed with weeds, but around March they are overgrown by taller wheat and even taller rye.

I bet by the end of Spring…. It will be a 5’ to 6’ tall jungle of seed heads in there for the rye grass.

That's the plan. Last year I had the whole field planted with it but cut it down in early spring when it was 3 or 4 feet tall.

Mike Barkley wrote:

That's the plan.

‘Tis a good plan to have!

I am going to attempt to get some going this Soring to learn if it will still seed out some or not. I hope to have the entire place looking like that every Winter over the next few years.

I just started the next experiment this morning. Went out and threw down 3 bags of pasture seed onto about an acre.

I took pics of the contents of the bags!!!

The purple and burgundy bags are what I threw down into the last patch near the barn (Winter before last). The pink bag is just winter annuals pretty much except for the biannual ryegrass type that is on there. Actually, if you are wondering what that "Becva Festulolium" @ 18% is... in the pink bag. It is a cross of biennial Italian Ryegrass and Fescue. So, it gets the benefits of both grasses. Here is a link on the grass. I am interested to see how it does.

http://www.dlfpickseed.com/Files/Files/DLF_Pickseed_USA/DLF_Pickseed_Tech_Sheets/Forage/Festulolium/becva_ts.pdf

Anyways, I will now be able to remember what grass seed types I threw down. Lol

I then asked the herd to please eat away the pasture stockpile and stomp as much of the seed into the ground as they can while doing so. They said, “sure thing” and then got to work.

If this works… I will no longer have to blow 10gal of gas (plus several more hours of work) to scalp the pasture with the mower, drag Harrow it a few passes, then spike aerate it.

I am saving the next patch for summer grasses in a few months. Planning on Teff, Bahia, and Millet.

Pics of the bags…. And the herd getting to work for me.

Marty, a couple of questions ;
- just throwing seed by hand may not be the best way to carry out performance testing.
- Do you have a seeding gadget available
- In Australia, some location do better with what they call ' native ' grasses which are the grasses that grew naturally before white man mankind came along.
They seem to suit the weather conditions more consistently.
Do you have that option?

John C Daley wrote:Marty, a couple of questions ;
- just throwing seed by hand may not be the best way to carry out performance testing.
- Do you have a seeding gadget available
- In Australia, some location do better with what they call ' native ' grasses which are the grasses that grew naturally before white man mankind came along.
They seem to suit the weather conditions more consistently.
Do you have that option?

1) It is totally true that just throwing seed out by hand is indeed NOT the best way to get seed to germinate.

However, if your goal is to get a stand of grasses growing that will readily reseed itself/repair the land when damage is done, then simply broadcast seeding is indeed part of the test.  

2) Yes, I do have a few minimal seeding gadgets available.
A. I am currently already using the animals to stomp the seed into divots out there in that slightly mushy pasture that had drainage issues I hope all that ryegrass will correct.  
B. After I move the animals onto the next patch... I aim to drag harrow that area if there is a lot of trampled grasses still covering the soil.
C. Then I will mow it.
D. Then i will go over it with a spike aerator. That is IF there is still a lot of forage left behind.

Otherwise, I will...
A. Just simply spike-aerate it. The seed will wash into those spiked holes over future rains... then create a million plugs out there. I have done that several times successfully now. Though I have always done it before the rain... not after like I will be doing this time.

Plan B. I also have a tractor... and could get whatever implement I chose to use down the road at some point if I need to.

3) From my understanding... some of the local native grasses were usually as tall as a man's shoulders... while riding horseback. I would have to dig in and do some research to see what is both good for the animals AND available.

However, I live in an area that has received well over 60 inches of rain in the last 12 months. Usually averaging about 45 inches of rain if I remember correctly.  Temperatures never really get too cold or too hot. Almost anything will survive here.

I would prefer what will make my animals and acreage perform best. I will choose that over native grasses hands-down(unless it is native too! That would work). Especially if it means having some forage growing year-round for minimal hay requirements! I hear I should be able to easily graze 320 or so days a year hear if I get it going right.

That being said... I totally keep working in some native wildflower seeds at times (mainly purple cone flowers so far). I really want to turn the large 1.5 acre yard into a massive set of wildflower meadows. I may add and start spreading some of my steril "Bocking 14" comfrey too.

Here is a picture of what these grasses looked like in another patch this past Spring. However, they were planted in the Fall AND were never grazed. You can see the red clovers in there that are knee high already… and there was Timothy and Orchard grass in there as well

@ John C

Reply #2….

I am reading up on some native local grasses on this page. I know I have seen a bunch of one of the native grasses listed here. Not a good one though sadly.

https://www.gardenia.net/guide/recommended-native-grasses-for-southeast-virginia

John C Daley wrote:Marty, a couple of questions ;
- just throwing seed by hand may not be the best way to carry out performance testing.
- Do you have a seeding gadget available
- In Australia, some location do better with what they call ' native ' grasses which are the grasses that grew naturally before white man mankind came along.
They seem to suit the weather conditions more consistently.
Do you have that option?

Still spending some free time looking into native grasses. Found a good video on a guy doing grasses out in Missouri that get super large without fertilizer via making their own like clovers do.

I will read up more on the grasses in his video.

However, I KNOW both my in-laws and wife will be in my ear every day telling me to brush hog it once it gets above knee high. So will be battling them if I were to ever do that tall of species.

In fact, last year I had them all freaking out in me when the grass was as tall as in the first post of this thread. They were very annoying! Lol 😆

LOL I can feel your pain Marty. Fighting the same battle here. All too often I hear "but that's not how everyone else around here does it". The proof is in the pudding though. Just keep on keeping on with what you're doing. The results will eventually be undeniable.

I think I mentioned buckwheat previously. Clovers might be another good option for you. Bluestem grasses might be taller than your folks can tolerate but maybe you can try some in a corner somewhere. They have really deep roots.

Mike Barkley wrote:LOL I can feel your pain Marty. Fighting the same battle here. All too often I hear "but that's not how everyone else around here does it". The proof is in the pudding though. Just keep on keeping on with what you're doing. The results will eventually be undeniable.

I think I mentioned buckwheat previously. Clovers might be another good option for you. Bluestem grasses might be taller than your folks can tolerate but maybe you can try some in a corner somewhere. They have really deep roots.

Thank you for the encouragement! I shall look into them.

Here is a link to the dude's website from the video...

https://www.hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/

I went to his website to read up on the grasses some this morning.

Then used their calculator thing to get the suggested plantings for my conditions and goals. I put that I have "Moist Soils".... primary goal of "Grazing".... secondary goal of "Pollinators"

They have options in the calculator for things like deer, wildlife habitat, etc for goals.

This is the list of recommended grasses it spit out for me...

"Establishment of natives for grazing usually focuses on a mix heavy in warm-season grasses, especially Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, Eastern Gama Grass, and Switchgrass. Depending on your grazing experience, and any other goals, including native cool-season grasses such as Virginia Wild Rye and River Oats can produce even more forage. Read the information on the forage page for more thoughts on choosing natives for grazing. Also, feel free to give us a call to talk with one of our staff to help choose a mix for your soils, grazing experience, and any other goals."

Now... I know what to read up on! Thank goodness.

Maybe I missed something and maybe I am being naïve, but did I read correctly that rye suppresses weeds?  Is this something I could use in the garden to suppress my (numerous) weeds and then terminate?

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:Maybe I missed something and maybe I am being naïve, but did I read correctly that rye suppresses weeds?  Is this something I could use in the garden to suppress my (numerous) weeds and then terminate?

Eric

Yes. They said it suppresses certain weeds.

I have no idea which ones though. Research would be required. You will have to see if it is the weeds you have... or just give it a try.

I know that folks do use it as a cover crop all the time though. Probably for a triple whammy maybe???

1) Feed the life in the soil and build soil structure while bringing in carbon
2) Bust up clay
3) Suppress the weeds (if it is the ones you have)

I can vouch from first hand experience that thickly planted winter rye suppresses weeds very well. Not sure about grain rye. I've been using it for the 3 reasons Marty mentioned. It also adds nitrogen to the soil.