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You gotta be kidding. You get 6 acres planted out of a bag of clover; barely one acre planted from a bag of rye. Clover will fix N for you, over 100lbs if you leave it long enough. Rye uses up N - true it recycles in the soil if you don't harvest it, but you don't _gain_ the N.... Clover is a _much_ better plowdown. However there are cases where rye is also a good choice. It does suppress some small seeded weeds, and it will use up excess N from manure & hold it in the soil. As well it adds tilth to the soil, tho an older crop of clover/ plowdown gets deeper roots to help buid the upper sub-soil. Rye has shallow roots, a good plow-down blend from Albert Lea has clover, sweet clover, & alfalfa in it to go deep in the soil, break up compaction. Now, if Kelley wants to plant alfalfa into this soil, then actually rye might be the best option. The alfalfa will fix it's own N, no need to add any now. I too buy my 'fun seeds' from Albert Lea, they have a web site & will ship, tho it's a fun trip to see their family owned store. The problem is timing. Kelley is going to end up planting at a rather dry time, hard to get the clover to emerge many years. Now or earlier, or mid August is the best time to plant such crops. Likely his hay field is short on P or K, which will need to be hauled in. My neighbor had problems with 'dead spots' in his alfalfa fields, foliar fed, micro nutrients and all, still not a great stand but helped. Got some manure hauled out there, & the next rotation his alfalfa did great. Some things are hard to replace from off the coop truck. I've had similar experiences. A soil test would be good, find out the ph, N, P, & K. If sandy, some sulfur might be needed esp for alfalfa. I have planted some plowdown blend with my oats for years. Last 2 years I even cut it for one cutting of hay. Then I even (carefully - bloat!) let the cattle graze it along with cornstalks all fall. Kinda bit me this year, got 20 acres I was going to put corn in, too wet so it's still growing out there. Will plow it down in June & put in beans. Will help the soil tilth a lot when it gets that big. If I were short on hay I could cut it. Long term I still gain on that field. Kelley, don't plant a blend with alfalfa if you plan to plant real aflfalfa of course. I think you could maybe get a cutting of clover off it this fall, clover is a hard thing to dry down, cattle slobber on it but love it. If you can, let the clover or rye grow until spring. Neighbor just cut his rye, he feeds heifers, he takes off corn silage in fall, seeds rye, ensiles the rye now & plants corn. Gets 2 crops a year up here in MN. I would go for the soil test & get some fert or what is needed worked into that spot, manure would be even better. Just the plowdown won't be enough I'll bet. Often a grass field can be revived with some manure & fert & get lucky with rains, it will reestablish itself that way too. --->Paul
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