Forage rye

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
I’ve got some forage rye, drilled a short while ago and now emerging. What stage of growth will I need to let it get to before I graze it for the first time and how hard (or not) can I graze it?
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Better growth over winter than westerwolds?
About the same all other things being equal.

I would sooner have westers . If given the choice :unsure: For them bit softer leaf overal and will come back better for consecutive grazing ime.
But Rye is good stuff for sheep , more palatable than rape/ kale /less nitrite

Rye Good for bit winter protein and bigger amount of forage first grazed so best to sttip graze , well I would anyway, even if it's fairly big breaks.
Real Good larder store if sown in reasonble time.

I woukdnt want let it get to long legged coarse for sheep , anyway...but even then it s very nice to have late winter early spring (y)
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
He didn't say - must have sold over a 1000 acres of Westerwolds and still going . Not sold any Rye
i call it westerwolf's :sneaky: mvf blend it with Italian which makes it a bit cheaper . very simple thing to grow ,weve got some still to sow plenty of time yet. gonna have to be as the corn aint finished cutting yet...:ROFLMAO:🤨🤷‍♂️
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
How long do you leave the westerwolds/irg in for?
Barely 12 months max for wester I suppose having said that the blend with ir I last used was down for nearly 2& half yrs:D btbf by the end it had got infiltrated by bits and Bob's like meadow grass and white clover that migrated in or come out of seed bank...
I may as well left it in tbh as the peas that replaced it were just about a right off this
 

Keepers

Member
Location
South West
Better growth over winter than westerwolds?

it was put in due to the agronomists recommendations, wanted something that could be fertilised and grow on rapidly to produce a lot of bulk for strip/block grazing.
Last year we had westerwolds/vetch mix which worked well enough but the westerwolds went yellow quickly but weren’t able to put enough nitrogen on due to vetch being in the mix.

This year the first field is done to pure Rye with a lot of fert to get it going and get bulk, the 2nd field is Rye and vetch with only a couple of kgs of fert due to the vetch being in. But will be grazed later when the vetch has matured and produced the nodules on the roots
The third field is a Slower growing diverse mix which will be grazed last of all
The lambs and ewe lambs have a turnip kale mix instead
 

Will you help clear snow?

  • yes

    Votes: 68 31.6%
  • no

    Votes: 147 68.4%

The London Palladium event “BPR Seminar”

  • 12,592
  • 185
This is our next step following the London rally 🚜

BPR is not just a farming issue, it affects ALL business, it removes incentive to invest for growth

Join us @LondonPalladium on the 16th for beginning of UK business fight back👍

Back
Top