Winter Rye

[marksmu]

Im down near the Texas Coast - Anahuac TX area, and we put out about 130 acres of rye 4.5 weeks ago....grass is getting about 5 inches tall, and I cannot for the life of me find a good source of when I can safely turn the cows out into the rye without them ripping up the roots of this stuff. Some of it is doing better than other areas, but what is the safe bet for the earliest I can turn the cows into it?

I dont need it now so I can easily hold off, I have plenty of stock piled other grass available, I was just wondering when is the earliest you can graze it, and when is the ideal time to graze it?

Thanks!

[Douglas]

Try to tear if off with your hand and see if the roots come up. I would normally wait till 6-8 inches the first time around. Edit: I would hold off a while if you can, the rye will hold up to the cold better than other stockpiled stuff. I also like to hold the rye as close to calving as possible as it is much higher in nutrition than anything thing else your likely to feed because they need it more then. The biggest mistake people make with winter annuals is grazing too soon.

[Douglas]

check this out:

http://www.aces.edu/dept/forages/winterannuals.html

[JRGidaho`]

Douglas' suggestion to see if you could easily pull it up is the best guideline.

I would guess you were on sandy soil down there (?). The sandier the soil the longer you need to wait. On clay type soils you can start grazing at 4-5 inches. I've seen sandy situations where 10" growth was still pulling out of the ground. If your stockpile is bermuda or bahia, you will definitely want to use that in early winter.

[marksmu]

The field the Rye is in is about 30% sandy and 70% clay type. It was a rice farm when we bought it, and we have been slowly but surely getting the pastures fixed back up. I moved the cows off the 60 acres of bahia last week and into the 130 acres of bermuda grass. The bermuda is about 18-30 inches tall depending on where you are in the pasture. I dont have a bailer or I would have bailed it. There is about 60 acres of good Bermuda in this pasture and another 70 acres or so of weeds mixed in with the Bermuda. I want to keep the cows on the Bermuda till the Rye is settled, I just dont want the Rye going to seed on me and I dont have enough cows to keep the full 130 acres eaten down.

Ill probably end up waiting till its a little taller, but if I wait too long I get afraid the geese are going to move in and wipe me out. Ill do the pull test this weekend and see what it feels like.

[TexasBred]

Mark if you're like us around here, just wait until it gets "dryer". That should solve any problems.

[marksmu]

I dont actually think it ever dries here. It gets less muddy - but Im not sure it ever gets "dry". It was dryish this summer, but not enough to ever brown anything or kill the mosquitoes....now its just flat out wet. This field has pretty good drainage, but 1 inch of rain takes a couple weeks to burn off this time of year and get the top firm again and we got several inches last week.

[Fred]

The main problem will be if the ground is wet the cows will mess up a lot of grass when they walk in it. I'd wait until it was about 6 inches tall before grazing. Also, if you can let the cattle in for a couple hours a day and take them out your ryegrass will go a lot further.