ryegrass

[gitnby]

has anyone sowed perenial ryegrass...its called itallian ryegrass here in Tn.....was wondering how long it last and if it holds up to heavy grazing..and yield for hay?............thanks

 

[Warren Allison]

has anyone sowed perenial ryegrass...its called itallian ryegrass here in Tn.....was wondering how long it last and if it holds up to heavy grazing..and yield for hay?............thanks

I have sowed it in a Bermuda hayfield before. You get to cut and bale it last of April- 1st of May. How much hay depends on how thick you sow it. Once the Bermuda starts in May, it is gone. I am guessing it would do well early in the year, or in a cooler climate, as forage, if there was no Bermuda to choke it out. And, it would re-seed itself, too, if allowed to grow long enough. We have some that were old food plots years ago, that comes in year after year. It gets almost no grazing pressure in the summer though, because there are other things they prefer. In the past we moved the cattle off in November before hunting season, and didn't put them back on that pasture til the middle of February. They would graze it til March or April until other things greened up.

 

[CowboyRam]

I have done the Italian Ryegrass here, but it usually will not last past two years here due to our winters. You don't get the hard freezes like we do so it might do better. I was not really all that impress with how much hay we got from it, but the cows seemed to like it. I am planning on plowing up some alfalfa this next spring, and might go with hay barley/ryegrass for two years and then go back with alfalfa again. My agronomist is suggesting to rotate out for two years before going back with alfalfa. In the past I have done just one year and that seemed to work.

 

[anewcomer]

Perennial ryegrass and Italian (annual) ryegrass are two entirely different plants.

 

[BC]

What are your goals and expectations for the ryegrass? Is it going to be for hay, grazing or both? If you are going for hay only, it will be more of an annual because you will cut it before it seeds out. If you are grazing only, you can pull off in early May and let it go to seed for next years crop or graze it hard and plant more seed next year. The latter is how we manage it here because if we let the ryegrass make a good seed crop it will shadow our summer grass and we loose production from it.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Depending on how you manage your pastures. The annual type will return next year if allowed to drop seed. I now have it volunteer when the canopy opens at the right time. I'm in East TN.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

@BC gives about the best response here. If anyone thought my responding with to fescue was bad with the dozen or so varieties/species talked about as simply "fescue", well....

"There are more than 200 varieties of perennial ryegrass currently sold in the US market,"

It's going to be a matter of speaking to a seed dealer, or two, or three, to get an idea of what is going to work best for you, where you are at. Ryegrass itself runs the entire gamut. I've spoke with other professionals in my field that honestly believe the annual ryegrass and perennial ryegrass are the same species. These individuals are taxonomic 'lumpers'. Then there are those individuals that will tell you there are at least 3 species, and probably more. (Annual Ryegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, Italian Ryegrass, and throw a couple other 'distinct' plants in for good measure.

Your solution isn't going to be so much 'species' dependent, but more on how you intend to manage it as well as the growing conditions (heat, cold, wetmess, drought, snow, soil type, that what you plant experiences.

You list heavy grazing and hay as two requirements for what you want. I won't say you can't find a species/variety that does well for both of these requirements, but these requirements aren't exactly parallel either. You won't find a variety that is excellent for both of these requirements.

I get a little nervous when someone says they are looking for a grass that stands up to 'heavy' grazing. 'Heavy' can be entirely different from one person to the next. I was once asked by a college what practices should be put into place (seeding, waterers, fences) for a grazing plan that had been written by a 3rd 'professional' that had a stocking RATE of 7 cows to the acre, not sticking DENSITY. This was given to me as a 'grazing' plan. This was being described to me as 'heavy' grazing. I hope your numbers aren't anywhere close to this. I'm telling you this to show that I don't know (and others don't as well) know what you mean by heavy grazing. How many animals of what size and for how long are you referring to as heavy grazing?

 

[wbvs58]

Coming into spring here and we've got what I believe to be perenial ryegrass coming up in my paddocks with white clover, the ryegrass is not thick, clover is, and I look after my paddocks rotationally grazing them. In my house yard now I would describe the ryegrass coming up as thick, I put this down to not being grazed.

Ken

 

[ClinchValley86]

Saw a guy on YouTube when I was first learning about this stuff back in 2016. I believe he was in NC.

He had ryegrass and clover for cool season. And crabgrass and lespedeza for warm season. He seeded each once and allowed them to seed. Then clipped it off at the right time to allow the c3 to c4 and then c4 to c3 transition. This was his entire pasture. Seemed pretty slick to me.

Wouldn't work for me. But seemed really smart.

 

[anewcomer]

The YouTube guy is managing both forages for seed production. Crabgrass much easier to do that than ryegrass. Annual ryegrass can come back the next season from seed, with appropriate management, but annual and perennial ryegrasses are two different things. Don't see much perennial in the US due to climate.

 

[Silver]

I am considering planting annual ryegrass wth my oats this spring. Plan would be to cut and bale the crop for baleage, then hoping the ryegrass would give me some late grazing when the cows come home in the fall.
Would this crop need to be terminated in the fall to kill it out effectively or would it die out over winter well enough that a light application of herbicide the following spring would clean things up good enough to establish a hay crop?

 

[Mrcopier]

Works fine for hay baling. Let it go to seed and cut it let it set for enough time so the seeds fall off during baling and it reseeds for next year. We do every year here in E Texas

 

[greybeard]

The annual type will return next year if allowed to drop seed.

It will, but just to some extent IMO. It never drops enough seed to get a full field germination, or maybe it's because of insects and birds but I've always found annual REproduction to be spotty the next year. and years after (this was in E Texas)

The only perennial ryegrass I ever planted was in a lawn. I wish I had not. I crowds out a lot of other grasses. YRMV

 

[ClinchValley86]

It will, but just to some extent IMO. It never drops enough seed to get a full field germination, or maybe it's because of insects and birds but I've always found annual REproduction to be spotty the next year. and years after (this was in E Texas)

The only perennial ryegrass I ever planted was in a lawn. I wish I had not. I crowds out a lot of other grasses. YRMV

It's not a full stand of it, but I have it in the stand now due to seed dropping. The more types the better I like it.

It sure is pretty this time of year.

 

[Silver]

I would only want the crop for this year, and start fresh and clean next year with oats under seeded to alfalfa/brome/timothy. I wouldn't want the ryegrass competing with the seedling hay crop so I want to make sure I can effectively terminate the ryegrass either through winter kill or winter kill and herbicide.

 

[bird dog]

Some of the guys around here that want horse quality Bermuda burn down the pasture with glyfo in late March. That kills everything off and gives the Bermuda a good start a month or so later. Thats probably what you would want to do Silver as some of the Rye grass varieties are pretty hardy for cold weather.

 

[CowboyRam]

I have planted Italian Ryegrass, it will grow until your get a hard freeze. I think it is considered a bi-annual. I did have some come in the second year, but not that much. I didn't feel that it grew as well as I had thought it should have. It did make pretty good hay and the cows seemed to really like it.

This year I am going to plant barley, radishes and turnips. The plan is to bale the barley, and then then the radishes and turnips should give me some forage for the cows, and build soil. I don't know what I am going to go with next year. My agronomist is recommending rotating crops two years before going back alfalfa.

 

[wbvs58]

We plant our forage cereals in autumn to give some green feed over winter and then especially in spring while we are waiting for the warm season grasses to get going. Last year I put in some diploid Italian rye in with my oats and it kept going all summer, not thick but you could see the distinctive rows of it with the clover. I grazed it as part of my rotation all summer. I have just finished seeding this paddock yesterday and this year I have used only a diploid Italian rye along with crimson clover and turnips. The paddock gets a lot of water coming out of the ground when we get a lot of rain like a couple of weeks ago and I am hoping the rye will handle the wet better than the oats, it did last year. the white clover has come on strong and I have grazed it heavily over the last couple of weeks and just drilled the rye in without spraying it out. I am optimistic of a good stand coming up. I would like to chop some and try my hand at making some silage from it as well as grazing.

Ken

 

[anewcomer]

Rye (cereal grain) and ryegrass are two totally different plants.

 

[Silver]

I don't think there is any confusion about that.