Ryegrass

[Cross-7]

I’m looking at planting ryegrass instead of wheat
The thought is to save on farming and seed wheat every fall.
How well does it produce during cold winter months when it’s below freezing every night ?

 

[T & B farms]

I’m looking at planting ryegrass instead of wheat
The thought is to save on farming and seed wheat every fall.
How well does it produce during cold winter months when it’s below freezing every night ?

Here wheat is much cheaper than rye. Almost 2/3 cheaper.
Rye will grow a little longer once it starts getting cold, aleast from my experience.

I always plant soft wheat, it is a little more disease resistant for no-till situations and it has a slightly wider leaf for more forage

 

[ga.prime]

Rye and ryegrass are two very different things.

 

[ga.prime]

I’m looking at planting ryegrass instead of wheat
The thought is to save on farming and seed wheat every fall.
How well does it produce during cold winter months when it’s below freezing every night ?

Doesn't produce squat in those conditions.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Rye and ryegrass are two very different things.

Yes. They sure are. Rye is more cold tolerant and also performs better than other small grains in acidic soil. Ryegrass is not gonna perform well until early spring. Cold won’t kill it, but it won’t thrive and grow until temps warm.

 

[redlevel]

Ryegrass will provide grazing in late winter early spring in mid-Ga most years. I believe UGA Extension says through late May.
Rye is cold tolerant, drought tolerant, and tolerant of acid soil. It produces better mid winter grazing.
In my experience, wheat, rye, or ryegrass is going to need some warm snaps to produce good grazing. We get that in mid-Georgia. We will typically get a cold front, bringing a couple of low 20s-high teens nights, then warming into the 60s or even low 70s for a few days. This is when we get good growth on ryegrass and small grains.
This year I’m planting rye and rye grass, both in pure stands rather than a mixture. Most of my fields and pastures have a lot of perennial ryegrass, so even the places I sow rye only will have some ryegrass.
I planted 4-5 acres of ryegrass before the 4.5 inches of rain we got with Michael, and hope to plant rye end of this week.
My real job gets in the way.