Fall Rye for Silage or Grazing

Fall rye is a traditional winter cereal cover crop grown on lighter soils to control wind erosion and build organic matter. Fall rye can also be used successfully as a forage crop, by grazing in the fall and spring, or by harvesting as haylage in May. Because fall rye is typically harvested as silage in southern Ontario in mid-May, there are some opportunities to include it in "double crop" systems. Do not confuse cereal rye (Secale cereale) with ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum or L. perenne), which are totally different grass species with quite different characteristics.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Fall rye is best known for its ability to provide a cover crop that prevents erosion while also providing good weed suppression. Rye is very cold tolerant and is the hardiest and most disease resistant of the winter cereals. Fall rye has an extensive fibrous root system, can scavenge nitrogen very effectively, and utilizes early spring moisture to grow very rapidly. Fall rye is earlier and faster growing in the spring than the other winter cereals, including wheat, barley and triticale. It heads the earliest of all these fall-seeded cereals, enabling an earlier forage harvest and more "double crop" options.

Rye has some limitations. Rye grown as grain is difficult to market in most parts of the province, although a good market exists in Norfolk County. Most livestock feeders want rye grain at a significant discount to barley or corn, so that option is limited. Fall rye grows well on lighter soils and on soils with low pH, but does not do well on heavier soils when drainage is poor. Winter wheat is a better forage option on heavier, poorly drained soils. Forage rye is higher yielding, but not as palatable as winter wheat. Rye matures rapidly at the boot and heading stages, so there is a very narrow harvest window.

Double Crop Options

Farmers that are looking for extra stored forage can plant fall rye following the harvest of many crops, such as corn silage. Forage rye harvested in mid-May can be followed by a late-planted crop, such as soybeans, edible beans a warm-season annual forage crop such as sorghum. Winter wheat heads later than fall rye, about June 5^th, making forage wheat harvest too late to be followed by corn or soybeans. Decreased moisture in the soil profile following forage rye harvest can potentially have a negative effect on the yield of the following crop. It is essential to completely kill the rye with glyphosate or tillage to minimize any shading and competition for moisture.

Rye is noted for having an "alleopathic effect" that suppresses the germination and growth of weeds and other crops. How significantly this potential alleopathy will lower the yield of the following crop depends on a number of factors. As most of the residue is removed, alleopathy is a low risk in most forage rye situations. The exception may be with no-till corn on heavier soil types. There is less potential for an alleopthic effect with:

• less rye residue - forage harvested off the field rather than left as a plowdown
• on lighter texture soils
• with more tillage
• with more time between harvest and reseeding
• a less mature rye crop (earlier harvest), and
• a legume (soybeans) rather than a grass species (corn).

Soybeans and edible beans following forage rye suffer almost no yield loss.

Seeding

Fall rye is easy to establish and can be seeded from late-summer to late-fall. If fall pasture is desired, fall rye should be seeded by August 15-30^th. If harvest as silage the following May is planned, fall rye should ideally be seeded in late-September, but later seedings can work on sandy soils. Although rye is the most tolerant of the winter cereals to late planting, it should be in the ground by late October. Rye can germinate in cold temperatures, but vegetative growth requires 4°C. Some growth going into winter is required for early spring growth and good yields.

Seed of fall rye is relatively inexpensive. If planted as a grain crop, fall rye should be seeded at 100 lbs per acre, but if it is to be used for forage, the seeding rate can be increased up to 168 lbs per acre (3 bu/ac). Use the higher seeding rates if seed is broadcast rather than drilled, or if the seeding date is very late. Apply phosphorus and potash according to soil test.

Grazing

Fall rye can provide good opportunities to extend the grazing season into late-fall and early-spring. Fall rye can be grazed 7 weeks after seeding, or when there is about 5 - 8 inches of top growth. If grazing in the fall, applying 50 lbs per acre of nitrogen at planting will stimulate growth. Nitrate poisoning can be a potential risk if high amounts of nitrogen have been applied. Although it can be grazed after frost, fall pastured rye should be allowed to go into winter with 2-3 inches of growth.

Fall rye is ready to graze early in the spring, about 10 - 12 days before wheat. Spring growth is very rapid, so to ensure that the rye does not get too mature, be prepared to move livestock frequently in a strip grazing system. Grazing rye on wet heavy clay soils in late-fall and early-spring conditions is not recommended due to livestock "pugging" and compaction.

Haylage

Fall rye can be made into good stored feed by cutting, wilting and making it into silage, either in tower, bunk, pile or bag silos. Wrapped baleage also works well, but this may be more expensive relative to the expected forage quality. Fall rye cut at the desired stage is extremely difficult to dry sufficiently to be made into dry hay.

Nitrogen applied at 45 - 70 lbs/ac in the spring at green-up will stimulate tillering and increase forage yield.

The timing of cutting is critical to quality and palatability, so the optimum harvest window is very narrow. Forage quality and palatability drop very quickly (faster than other cereals) at the heading stage. Rye should be harvested for forage at an earlier stage than other cereal crops to ensure palatability and intake.

It is recommended to target harvesting forage rye at the early-boot stage (prior to heading), which generally occurs during May 10^th - 20^th in southern Ontario. At this stage, a dry matter yield of 2 tonnes per acre is typically possible. However, there can be a very large range in forage quality with only a few days difference in harvest. At the early-boot stage (Zadok Stage 39 - ligule of the last leaf just visible), crude protein (CP) can approach up to 18% (depending on the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied), with Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) under 50%. At the head-emerged stage (Zadok Stage 55), CP drops to the 13-14% range, while NDF increases to over 60%. This will likely be adequate for heifers, dry cows and beef cows, but will not be dairy cow or sheep quality.

When rye is cut later, at the early-dough stage, the yield may approach 3 tonnes per acre, but the quality, palatability and intake will be much poorer. Delaying forage rye harvest past the boot stage because of bad weather or competing field crop activities is not very forgiving.

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