Magnum Ryegrass

Has anyone used Magnum Ryegrass? Good Bad any thoughts on this grass. Thank you

I know nothing of Magnum but I drilled a tetraploid annual rye, Tetila, into my paddocks last autumn and it did very well. The feed grew throughout winter, it wilted with the dry conditions in August/ September but has recovered totally with rain over the last couple of weeks and is providing good feed until the summer species get going next month. I am going to do a lot more of it next year. I also put in 8 acres of a late maturing diploid annual rye that I was able to irrigate and it did well also, I have grazed it 4 times already and will bale it shortly then keep on grazing it It is finer leaf than the Tetila but has lots of tillers giving a lot of feed low down.

Ken

Thanks we have had success with the TARG In the past just had never used the Magnum variety. Robert

I used one called Jumbo. May be the same thing.....Magnum...Jumbo. Works great. Holds up to weather in rolls sitting out better than common annual. Cows love it.

I have always had good luck with Gulf reseeding itself somewhat. Will these Tetraploid varieties do that also or is their seed sterile?

I put out some Jumbo this year due to the high price of Gulf if you can even find it. I mixed it with oats so we'll see how it goes.

bird dog":8xanllga said:

.........I mixed it with oats so we'll see how it goes.

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I mixed it with Austrian Field Peas.....we'll see how it goes. Did the peas last year with no fert. Plowed them in the spring and came right back with Gotcha Plus SS. Got two nice cuttings before the Sugar Cane Aphids hit me again. No Fert other than peas.

Peas are the same $ as the other seeds, except Teff. Ordered from local farm store. Good folks. Can get you most anything you want. Planted 50# to the acre for a thick stand. Last year it was an iffy stand and with the results I got I am hoping the peas will do the winter rye and the summer crop.

Thinking about Milo for the summer hay crop. Lots of big, long leaves and short stems which will yield to a crimper when cut before the boot and maturity. Looking for a thick, shorter producer. Seems I can work shorter crops and get them dried and baled better than long ones....just get tangled up in themselves.

I just finished baling a neighbor's Milo stubble which came back strong in the drought we had this summer and early fall. It already had the 3rd set of shoots coming on strong before I could get off the field. No SC Aphids on that field and half a mile from my place and much larger area. Maybe I can get 2 or 3 cuttings.....would be nice for a change. If it works, I'll add some NPK to the mix next year and maybe leave be on the rye .

Is there such thing as a Milo geared to forage?

I don't know. Neighbor had a sorry Milo crop and had it baled back in the summer. As with sorghums and probably other crops, stubble came back with 4-5 new shoots per stubble stick making for small stemmed plants to start with. I let it get up about 18-24 inches and whacked it. Ran the IH 404 over it to crush the stems since I now use a drum mower. Baled it and have some really nice hay with soft, short fat stems and lots of leaf.

I figure to drill it at 50#/ac which is what I do with SS and should reduce the size of the stems if it responds to crowding as SS crops do and being a Sorghum why shouldn't it! Then watch the growth and somewhere in there before I see the boot bulge whack it. Being a dry ground crop it will come back with the same 4-5 new chutes per stalk (surely) and that second cutting should be better than the first.

Worth a try. Like most folks (I guess) no two years are the same for me. If I'm not trying something different, the weather is hitting me with something different. Guess that's part of what keeps me interested in farming.

One thing that did impress me was the Sugar Cane Aphid problem that first occurred here in 2014. This year it hit my SS crop but didn't hit the neighbors Milo crop, nor the regrowth which occurred later on in the summer which is when SCAs are at their worst. Both are sorghums. That in itself is a reason to go with Milo.

The aphids with definitely get in Milo.
Though they do seem to prefer SS.
I do believe we need to start spraying them. They problem is they live mostly down in the whorl of the plant. When the grass is 4 foot tall you can't get spray to them without specialized equipment. Maybe spray the crop young with something with a long residual idk. . But if we keep just working around them their not going to just leave... maybe a really hard winter

I definitely believe the gulf ryegrass is better at reseeding than the triploid types. It seems like you get some volunteer out of the triploid, but it will be very week and pitiful.

My two cents. If you're planting a hay crop the triploid will shine. But for simply overseeding permanent pasture I prefer the gulf. I get more and more volunteer every year.

bird dog":3475in2f said:

Is there such thing as a Milo geared to forage?

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Yeah.....called haygrazer. :mrgreen:

Update on the peas and Jumbo Rye. With little to no rain, they are coming right along. Germination is getting on up in the 80-90% with the late comers showing up. Peas up around 2" and Rye about 4 for the early bloomers.

On the Milo vs Haygrazer (sudan-sorghum), one of the reasons I am still on track to go with plain old feed Milo for seed, is the Sugar Cane Aphid. As mentioned earlier I was attacked again trying to grow SS early in the summer on my first cutting regrowth and the guy growing Milo right up the road had no aphids in the regrowth that I baled and in the regrowth that has occurred after that. Being a cause and effect guy, got me as to why or what mechanism makes the difference. We'll see.

If you never had them, and we didn't till 2014, you don't want them. Kill the plant and make a gooey mess of the leaves.....spread like wildfire when they hit. Reports of folks that tried to bale what was left after they hit said that the goo (aphid secretions) gummed up their haying equipment. Can't imagine something wanting to eat that mess.