Teach me about ryegrass and canarygrass

Brown Swiss

Well-known Member
So I am looking at seed for next year, I am
thinking of planting a mix of perennial ryegrass,
orchardgrass, tall fescue, canarygrass, a pound
per acre of chicory, and five pounds of red
clover. This will be fertilized with composted
manure. I have 34 acres to plant, 14 in the
bottom, silt loam, and the top of a bluff has 20
acres of clay. This will be for baleage not
grazed, it is four miles away on a rented farm. I
planted 50 acres to alfalfa and tall fescue this
spring. I was wondering if Italian ryegrass could
be added for a cover crop or will the other
grasses and clover take off fast enough. Please
tell me if this is what I would want or split it
up a little. I am new to these grasses, grew up
with bromegrass and orchardgrass mixed in with
alfalfa. I am in sw wi, Thanks
 
Rye grass, whatever species...don't know....comes from Oregon, is an excellent cover crop down here. It's $30 per 50# bag and there are millions of seeds in that bag. Cheapest seed, hands down, I can buy around here. It is easy to get rooted (I drill it) and in the spring it makes a nice hay crop that is in demand, or makes for nice winter/early spring grazing. The seed is advertised as annual, but if you let it head out, it will reseed itself and become perennial.

After it warms up, it can't take the heat and dies out. Usually we introduce it into Bermuda as when it dies off is about the time it's warm enough for Bermuda to start growing. So then you get a harvest of that too.

I don't have any experience with other grasses or clovers here as weeds are a terrible problem and the 24D kills clovers while trying to control the weeds; so I quit planting them. The rest of your seeds are not sold down here so I can't help there either.

My winter crop of Rye sprouted with rain a couple of weeks ago and the fast growers are up to about 3" but really need more rain. Have some scheduled for this week. Hope it gets here.

HTH,
Mark
 
Canarygrass has to be cut early. It is a very course grass and once it heads, feed value goes down rapidly. It's very hearty and once established will never die out. It loves wet ground that nothing else will grow on and can stand continual flooding. Wild carnarygrass has a taste to it that cows don't particuarly like, but a feed mill guy told me that the commercial seed you buy is modified to remove that substance, whatever it is. The stuff will grow on drier ground also. Unless you have a lot of wet ground, take it easy on the canarygrass in the mix. That stuff will overpower about anything else.
 
I wouldn't introduce Canary Grass if it were me. It will grow on cold, wet, sour ground but you have to get it at 16" or so to make good feed. High in alkalines IIRC. We have a lot of it here naturally and it's a fight to get rid of it. It doesn't do well on dry land at all IME.
 
I would never plant Canary grass to feed milk cows. Even rye can be hard to get rid of short of Round up. I have been planting 40% red clover 40% alfalfa 20% timothy, and either chopping it for haylage or wet bales.
 

There are newer, low alkaline Canary grasses out there for sale. I don't know which ones they are or how they stand up. I know one guy that uses them and likes them but he's the only one. They do well on heavy, sour, cold land like we have but that's the only plus for any Canary Grass. You can't grow any alfalfa on this land without tiling and adding tons of lime. Even Red Clover is iffy on most of it and will winter kill 1 out of 5 years. Go 30 miles east or 20 miles south and you're in sand that will grow alfalfa
 
I thought I would try some on a few acres, I am thinking of going grass based dairy, planting clovers and grass and some chicory for minerals. I have to much of a work load now and the thought of just doing harvesting hay looks appealing! Plus it pencils out better for my bottom line. My dad is 72 now and has really slowed down, so it is mostly me doing the blunt of the work. Trying to do field work and get chores done is a challenge. I got baling hay down to a one man operation, but when it comes to harvesting corn it is way to slow with out him. Tom
 

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