Rye Grass Pro-Con

The subject has been debated somewhat lately. Question is do any of you use it for a feed stock, aka bale it for hay? If so, would you share your success stories and how it works for a food source?

Thanks,
Mark

Over the yrs I baled and fed a lot of Ryegrass. As with any crop the stage of maturity when cut severely affects it's feed value. Ryegrass tends to mat when cut so it can be difficult to get hay dry enough to bale especially when laying on very wet soil. I've noticed some Ergot(fungus) on my Ryegrass seedheads and I'm concerned about the hay's feed value if it ever dries up enough I can cut it.

this is my first year of harvesting ryegrass. I planted it for erosion
control but had a local cattleman offer to buy the hay/silage.
i worked with him as he had some knowledge. he recommended and we did green chop it. we swathed it one day and chopped it the next. I planted it to soybeans that same day. he said our conditions, especially this spring, didn't lend it to baling as we had a cool damp spring.
i planted this at the lowest rate my drill would plant. I didn't want it to become mixed with any rye grass, so i left gaps. the overall it made 6 ton per acre. black dirt was double that of the clay side hill. we received many large rain events, including an 8.2in deluge. I had no ditches, the rye did its job. any other questions, you can PM me.

Thanks for the invite and reply.

I figured you'd know if anybody and be in similar (somewhat) growing conditions. Read up on Ergot so I know what to look for. I
had 2 fields of Annual Rye. One is a loss due to maturity and seeds already falling off by just the action of the weather. Will work it
into the soil and will get some good benefit from it anyway. My Houston Black Clay can surely use a dose of humus.

The other one is a little mature, but still green, seed pods still clinging, about 50-50 Coastal Bermuda. Should make some nice hay
for the guy that bought it. He originally wanted both fields, but I'm not going to attempt to sell him the mature one, even though
hay will be scarce here this year due to the rain and the subsequent late planting of the summer hay crop.

I cut it a couple of days ago, have been waiting for the sun to come out......finally after the 20" of rain in May (set an all time
record). So far the weatherman has done his job. Had a couple of 85 degree days, no clouds, low humidity, and the field is drying
out fast now that the sun can see the dirt. Good stubble height, about 4-5 inches so it's off the ground. Machine and tractor are
setup for 6' and my drum mower puts out a windrow that fits just inside the tire width so it works out perfectly....don't stomp on the
previously cut round.

Way it looks I may leave it be, no teddering, and just before baling, combine 2 rows to give me some working room, don't need it for
volume.

Thanks for kicking in.

Mark

Odd. Here in NE Ohio we were 1.50" below normal for May until the last two days of the month. Hay is not growing well.

Cut at boot stage, and made into baleage, cows do good on it.