Wanting to plant some winter pasture

[DCB4]

I'm wanting to plant something this fall to graze later on in the winter. This will be a completely new adventure for me. I was leaning towards drilling either wheat, or a rye/rye grass mixture. Was looking for thoughts and experiences some of y'all have had with either or any other alternatives. Also wondering how it would compete with fescue? Can I no till into an established fescue pasture and will the fescue emerge in spring or will the wheat try to choke it out? Eventually I'd like to establish some summer annual rotation with these winter pastures but not sure I'd go with a summer annual this coming year or not. I'm located in south western Kentucky

 

[kenny thomas]

If you have fescue add Urea and stockpile it till Christmas. The wheat will do fine but no chance it will compete with the fescue.

 

[Ebenezer]

A waste of seed on a good fescue stand. Frost seed white and red clover in late winter by broadcasting for the best bang for your buck.

 

[VaCowman]

I agree with Kenny and Ebeneezer 100%. Not much will compete with fescue if the sod isn't suppressed. A good dose of N would probably be more advantageous than trying to establish a winter annual, especially this late in the game. Not many options would give you much winter grazing for this year if you planted it now. August is a better month for establishing a forage for winter grazing IMO. A summer annual / winter annual rotation is a good option. I encourage you to consider it, you can really make some fantastic tonnage while you avoid grazing the fescue during the least profitable (fescue) grazing times of the year.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I do agree with the above...but...last year i broadcast Ryegrass at about 15 lbs on fescue/clover fields. Then drug with a chain harrow. The stand was about 10 or 12 inches tall. Then moved the cattle on. Let them eat it down a bit to trample the seed more. Stopped feeding hay early March, about 3 weeks before the neighbors. Was worth the money and doing it again on other fields this year. Already have volunteer ryegrass coming up in the fields from last year.

It did thin the fescue a bit possibly. Nothing major though.

I broadcast in october, so seeding now and getting rain will possibly be better results.

 

[VaCowman]

I have recently drilled in (killed the sod, which was a Sudangrass field in summer) a mixture of oats, ryegrass, crimson clover, winter peas. We got 1/2" rain the next day and I had JUST finished spreading fertilizer as rain came. 3 days later, oats were visible from a distance and ryegrass was about 1" tall. peas hadn't made appearance, but the crimson clover was just busting through in the two leaf stage. 1 week later (d10) The oats are ~4-5", ryegrass is at 2+", crimson is coming along, winter peas are about 2-3" and the mix is thickening up very nicely. Should get adequate grazing on the mix in late Nov/Dec. and plan to pull cattle before grazed too tightly to keep ryegrass in good shape for winter. Next spring, hopefully in early March, the ryegrass should be cranking up and hopefully the clover will ramp up too. If all goes well, should be able to cut WAY back on hay. (I still like to put out some hay when grazing this mix in spring due to RG being so lush. Seems to help stabilize the gut some) A good plan (SG-Summer, Winter annual mix-late fall/early spring) to eliminate/reduce hay requirements, and keep excellent nutrition to cows during typical "hay feeding/low quality feed" time of the year, especially in the fescue belt. Sometimes I will feed some hay from mid-Sept until about mid-October to get a bit of stockpiled perennial forages to incorporate into the mix of annuals to get me through breeding season and into winter/Spring. 60-90d hay is my goal. Much less, I'm leaving $$ on the table, much more and my feeding cost is getting too high.

 

[DCB4]

I do agree with the above...but...last year i broadcast Ryegrass at about 15 lbs on fescue/clover fields. Then drug with a chain harrow. The stand was about 10 or 12 inches tall. Then moved the cattle on. Let them eat it down a bit to trample the seed more. Stopped feeding hay early March, about 3 weeks before the neighbors. Was worth the money and doing it again on other fields this year. Already have volunteer ryegrass coming up in the fields from last year.

It did thin the fescue a bit possibly. Nothing major though.

I broadcast in october, so seeding now and getting rain will possibly be better results.

Getting an early march stand to shorten my hay feeding on the back end is exactly what im hoping for. Do you feel like your ryegrass was a significantly better stand then jut the fescue and clover would have been in the early march time frame?

 

[DCB4]

I have recently drilled in (killed the sod, which was a Sudangrass field in summer) a mixture of oats, ryegrass, crimson clover, winter peas. We got 1/2" rain the next day and I had JUST finished spreading fertilizer as rain came. 3 days later, oats were visible from a distance and ryegrass was about 1" tall. peas hadn't made appearance, but the crimson clover was just busting through in the two leaf stage. 1 week later (d10) The oats are ~4-5", ryegrass is at 2+", crimson is coming along, winter peas are about 2-3" and the mix is thickening up very nicely. Should get adequate grazing on the mix in late Nov/Dec. and plan to pull cattle before grazed too tightly to keep ryegrass in good shape for winter. Next spring, hopefully in early March, the ryegrass should be cranking up and hopefully the clover will ramp up too. If all goes well, should be able to cut WAY back on hay. (I still like to put out some hay when grazing this mix in spring due to RG being so lush. Seems to help stabilize the gut some) A good plan (SG-Summer, Winter annual mix-late fall/early spring) to eliminate/reduce hay requirements, and keep excellent nutrition to cows during typical "hay feeding/low quality feed" time of the year, especially in the fescue belt. Sometimes I will feed some hay from mid-Sept until about mid-October to get a bit of stockpiled perennial forages to incorporate into the mix of annuals to get me through breeding season and into winter/Spring. 60-90d hay is my goal. Much less, I'm leaving $$ on the table, much more and my feeding cost is getting too high.

This is exactly what i am gunning for. I really want to end my hay feeding time earlier in the year, even if its just by a few weeks starting out. Very encouraging to hear what you've got working for you! In your experience des your rye mixture take to growing quicker in the spring than fescue?

 

[ClinchValley86]

I suppose it depends how much fescue stubble you leave on a field. Have heard the longer yiu leave it the earlier it will come out of dormancy. I think it keeps the soil warmer.

But yes, in my case, saved us more than it cost to seed the 20 acres. Saved around 40 to 45 rolls of hay.

I used poly wire to give them 3 acres at a time at first. Then the 2nd rotation i went smaller, and smaller.

One thing i noticed...cattle make a lot of milk on ryegrass. Their bags got veiny after 1 night on the RG. Grazing fescue/clover fields they werent as full.

 

[VaCowman]

I have recently drilled in (killed the sod, which was a Sudangrass field in summer) a mixture of oats, ryegrass, crimson clover, winter peas. We got 1/2" rain the next day and I had JUST finished spreading fertilizer as rain came. 3 days later, oats were visible from a distance and ryegrass was about 1" tall. peas hadn't made appearance, but the crimson clover was just busting through in the two leaf stage. 1 week later (d10) The oats are ~4-5", ryegrass is at 2+", crimson is coming along, winter peas are about 2-3" and the mix is thickening up very nicely. Should get adequate grazing on the mix in late Nov/Dec. and plan to pull cattle before grazed too tightly to keep ryegrass in good shape for winter. Next spring, hopefully in early March, the ryegrass should be cranking up and hopefully the clover will ramp up too. If all goes well, should be able to cut WAY back on hay. (I still like to put out some hay when grazing this mix in spring due to RG being so lush. Seems to help stabilize the gut some) A good plan (SG-Summer, Winter annual mix-late fall/early spring) to eliminate/reduce hay requirements, and keep excellent nutrition to cows during typical "hay feeding/low quality feed" time of the year, especially in the fescue belt. Sometimes I will feed some hay from mid-Sept until about mid-October to get a bit of stockpiled perennial forages to incorporate into the mix of annuals to get me through breeding season and into winter/Spring. 60-90d hay is my goal. Much less, I'm leaving $$ on the table, much more and my feeding cost is getting too high.

This is exactly what i am gunning for. I really want to end my hay feeding time earlier in the year, even if its just by a few weeks starting out. Very encouraging to hear what you've got working for you! In your experience des your rye mixture take to growing quicker in the spring than fescue?

Absolutely! We have mowed the first cut annual RG in mid April before. It really jumps out of the ground once we start getting a few warm days in late Feb/early March. We have had several mild winters in the last few and it grew all winter but really took off in March. Most of the time we get to graze by mid March. Fall calves graze through a creep gate into the RG from about mid to late Jan.