# Italian ryegrass into old alfalfa stand?



## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

I have an older alfalfa stand and am thinking of no-tilling Italian ryegrass to thicken up the stand and get production this year and possibly next. We are high elevation and short growing season. Never tried IRG before but looks interesting. My main objective is tonnage for cow hay this season and grazing early next spring. Maybe one cutting next spring and then heavy ground work and fall seeding alfalfa in 2015.

Probably spray out alfalfa after 1st cutting. How hard will it be to kill the IRG next year? Will RU get most of it? Some volunteer would be acceptable in new alfalfa if Select will control it.

Looking for any insight or advice. Thanks!


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I bought enough irg to try 25 acres this season. Have no experience with it. I wanted to no till it into bean stubble, harvest a cutting or two while spraying to control some tough broadleafs and then drilling alf/timothy into it after killing with glyph.

Seed salesman,good friend, now has me talked out of this now saying 1 , it will be too hard to dry and 2, it will be too tough to kill.. I will be interested in responses you get.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

My brother had some last year. We are still novices but thought it was plenty dry. Turns out at least some of it wasn't. I know I baled some alfalfa clover grass mix a bit too wet and that turned out way better than the ryegrass (at least the first RB). Whole bale was black. Maybe a fluke too. He has some more that hasn't been checked yet. Will see..


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

We typically get low humidity (single digits possible) and near 100 degree temps during July-Aug when I anticipate the first cutting. Does it have a waxy, grain like stem or more grassy the first year? We usually get 4+ ton Triticale to dry untouched in June. Will be cut with a new double conditioner and laid out wide. Do you run a Tedder over it? How many cuttings in the first year?


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I've interseeded annual ryegrass/orchard grass into thining stands for about 15 yrs when I wanted to thicken up a stand.The annual ryegrass which would be similar to the Italian does have waxy leaves and dries slower then the alfalfa or orchard.

I've never had a problem killing off annual ryegrass with roundup from just a little spray drift kills it from adjoining field.

A tedder would work good I would think.I lay it out in a 10' swath from a 13' cutter to aid in drying.


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

I did a bunch last year for myself and others, to help out fields that didn't winter very well. For the most part I was less than impressed. If anything it held back the weeds in the worst of the thin spots, but tonnage was really poor. Lesson learned here was to just tear out a poor field and start over if the stand count is too low.


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## Erock813 (Jun 3, 2008)

In this part of the country they have started to frost seed it with good success. Considering its basically a ryegrass you will have some trouble with cutting it with a sickle unless its in good shape. Another thing is remember to cut it higher than alfalfa since grass stores its energy in the lower part of the stem. I have no tilled the grass into existing stand with no problem. It does dry down better than some other types of ryegrasses.

With all the praises of Italian ryegrass, I would consider looking into Festulolium. It will give you a couple more years of high quality feed. You do have to do some homework since there quite the difference in varieties out there for seed. Some are used for pasture and some for hay production. DLF international Seeds has a great site on Festulolium.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

IAhaymakr said:


> I did a bunch last year for myself and others, to help out fields that didn't winter very well. For the most part I was less than impressed. If anything it held back the weeds in the worst of the thin spots, but tonnage was really poor. Lesson learned here was to just tear out a poor field and start over if the stand count is too low.


I agree that most of the time you are better off just ripping it out and starting a new field.But from what I've seen if a guy interseeds ryegrass a guy is better off cutting a little later to give it a chance to grow.The alfalfa is in full bloom.It won't be dairy hay but will make cow or heifer hay.

I've always used annual forage type ryegrass it matures faster then Itallion ryegrass.And I add a perennial like orchard if I plan on keeping in longer.

I was disappointed in yield last yr also when it turned dry the ryegrss didn't do much.In wetter yrs it has produced a lot better.


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## MT hayer (Mar 1, 2014)

I don't know much about the rye grass. Never seen it used up here. I would suggest going out and dig up some random roots. See how much of the center of the root is white and healthy. Do you have some disease issues? It scares people, but I would use one of those Horsch Anderson Joker machines and set it about an 1 to 2 inches deep. It has a packer on it and it will piss the alfalfa off. Your stand will thicken back up in addition to you putting this rue grass or whatever back in it. Let us know what you find when you go digging around. It will also show if you should just start over.


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## cdhayman (Jan 25, 2011)

We inner seed IRG (green spirit), all the time into older alfalfa. We also drill it into existing grass fields. Our best tonnage usually comes from having some of it in the mix. You won't have any problem getting it dry. It makes nice hay and horses love it. We started using it probably close to 20 years ago now. We had a field of straight IRG that produced some 350 RFV hay. So it is some really awesome stuff, and I would definitely try it if I were you


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies! This stand is old, maybe 9 years and needed rotated out last year but I had new ground that needed major attention. I sprayed gramoxone to zap the broadleaf weeds then Danish harrowed fairly deep. I didn't want to little bale the ryegrass but already have interest in it for horse hay. Waiting for weather to clear up and will plant this week. I'm sure we won't have a problem getting it sold or fed. Hope that I can get it killed next summer. Will post some progress pics. Thanks!


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