# Planting winter rye in the spring?



## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

What would happen if I planted rye in the spring? We have a pretty good market for rye straw but not so much for oat or wheat.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I would be concerned that the rye may not vernalize and thus not grow a stem to head out if planted this time of year. There are some varieties of spring triticale that might work and I think it would be hard to tell the straw apart from rye. It is going to be getting awfully warm soon to be planting a cool season crop though and I wonder if a spring variety while it will head out if it won't burn up in the heat before it gets time to mature?


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> I would be concerned that the rye may not vernalize and thus not grow a stem to head out if planted this time of year. There are some varieties of spring triticale that might work and I think it would be hard to tell the straw apart from rye. It is going to be getting awfully warm soon to be planting a cool season crop though and I wonder if a spring variety while it will head out if it won't burn up in the heat before it gets time to mature?


Does he want it to head?


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

8350HiTech said:


> Does he want it to head?


 To get straw I would think that you want it to head so you would have a stem......otherwise it would be just leaves which would be more like hay than straw I would think.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

We'll I have 25 acres that I've burned down with glysphate. Planning on just leaving it till fall and plant orchard gass, but thought if I could get a low input crop planted figured I would. I know a lot of you are thinking teff, but after talking to 6 local farmers that have raised it they all say don't. All I have is a square baler, so it really comes down to straw. Oat hay for horses does not sell we'll around here so that's a no go as we'll. with that being said wonder what oat hay cut in the vegative state look like? Basically if it's not green in color when bales here horse owners won't buy it. I know I would be cutting my yield down a lot, but if it was leafy and stayed green I'd say it would sell.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Here is a picture of oat hay I made last year. I cut it just after it headed out when it was pollinating. As you can see it made a pretty two toned green bale of hay. I'm surprised you say oat hay doesn't sell well over there......here it is one of my best selling hays for horses. It has to be cut before it starts turning a golden color though or it will look like straw and the grain in the bales will draw rats.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Nate926 said:


> I know I would be cutting my yield down a lot, but if it was leafy and stayed green I'd say it would sell.


In that case, the rye just might work well for you.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

FarmerCline said:


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That looks good enough for me to eat Hayden. Put a little basalmic on it....hmmmm.

Regards, Mike


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Farmercline that does look really good! Could you go over how you plant it when, and fertilizing it?


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Oats should work if you cut at the right time. The last thing I would do would be kill now and leave bare. You'll have a fresh crop of weeds before you know it. Plant oats, plant rye, plant buckwheat, but make sure you plant something.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> Farmercline that does look really good! Could you go over how you plant it when, and fertilizing it?


 Normally I plant oats in the fall(late October-early November)......however the oats pictured were planted in late March because I could not get them out the previous fall. I have found that here oats do better if fall planted but the spring planted ones did fine......just yielded about 40% less and matured about 3 weeks later into the summer than fall planted oats. Fall planted oats are typically ready to cut by May 1st here and yield 100-120 bales an acre.

I typically apply about 30 units of N in the fall at planting along with the P and K the soil test called for. In March I will then top dress 50-60 units of N. For the spring planted oats I applied 60-70 units of N right at planting or a week or two after. I drill 3 bushels an acre of seed.

I find that a lot of my customers like feeding oat hay along with a couple flakes of alfalfa. Oat hay is naturally low in calcium and alfalfa is quite high in calcium so the two hays seem to compliment each other nicely.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Your soil temps should be getting up there soon. Sudan grass will give you probably three cuts and if you watch your nitrogen application and cutting heights you should be safe with the prussic acid. Seed at 1.5 times the listed rate and you get a finer stem that dries much faster. Excellent weed suppression as well.


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