# teff vs orchard mix



## Joseph K (Feb 20, 2014)

Trying to get some insight from you guys who have done grass. I've got a field coming out of seed alfalfa I need to plant to grass, and I'm having trouble with what type of grass would work best. Orchard Brome mixes are popular here, often with some ryegrass and festulolium mixed in as well. My other option would be to go to teff for a year or 2 and then back to alfalfa. I have no experience with grass, I'm new to hay and have only been doing straight alfalfa thus far. I'm wondering what kind of real world tonnage difference do you guys see between a good orchrdgrass mix and teff, is it worth the planting it every year ? I have a good moco so I'm not worried about the cutting, but when it comes to drying, I do have a wheel rake but no tedder, am I going to have significant trouble drying one over the other? I know teff can be harder to sell but I believe I have a reasonable market for it here between the horse people and the cattle guys, but is there a noticable difference in what you guys can get for each? And is there any significant advantage in fertilizer needs between the two ?I've been trying to chase down trials on tonnage and performance for the grass mixes everywhere and just can't seem to find any good information, same with teff. Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated.


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

I'm assuming your irrigated. Your dry down with Teff will be a little longer than OG in my opinion, much like alfalfa.

As for tonnage, I've planted Teff under irrigation for the past 2 years, following hay oats. Oats were cut and baled around 3 rd week of June and Teff was no-tilled into the stubble. Fertilized with Nitrogen and took 2 cuttings of Teff before frost. My yield this year was about 2 ton per acre for both cuttings, a little disappointing to me this year as I didn't Fert. the first cutting and should have. I think close to 2 ton/acre per cutting would be more the norm.

Personally I believe OG or OG mix would be the way to go. I believe you will yield a little better in the long run and for sure be ahead in the seeding game. If you're willing to commit a field for say 4-5 years. As for fertilizer I think it would be a wash between the two.

If you want to have options open to re-plant the field to alfalfa, then Teff is a good alternative. This is the reason I chose to raise it. It does feed well and everyone I've sold it to has been pleased with it. Between the two I think in the long run you'd be happier with OG.

Teslan (as well as others) may chime in, as he's had more experience than me.

Troy


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## MFSuper90 (Jun 26, 2015)

If you have the market to sell it, I would try the teff. I tried it one year and will be planting more this upcoming year. It has different cutting schedule than alfalfa which has pluses and minuses. Nice thing about teff is, it's one and done so you have the ability to rotate back to alfalfa as well as change the grass type if you find out it's not right for you.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

If you want to go back to alfalfa within a year or two go with the Teff. But if you want to try grass orchard/brome (stay away from fescue). Stay with it for at least 5 years. I got 4 cuttings of Teff this year. I should have fertilized the last two cuttings. You don't need a Tedder. A wheel rake will be fine. Fertilizer for grass costs a lot more then Teff. The seed costs a lot more also. If you have weeds you might have to spray either before first cutting. But if you get a good stand you shouldn't have to spray the grass again following seasons. You will not get to much production the first year with orchard/brome. But following years you should almost make more on one cutting of orchard then all cuttings of Teff. For me Teff is a good rotation for alfalfa but not a long term crop. People like it but you can't charge more for it. You will need to irrigate grass or Teff a lot more then alfalfa. But the good thing about grass or Teff you don't have to worry about shattering leaves if you don't have enough dew. That is the best feature over alfalfa there is.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I found that teff grew well in my local climate with a fair amount of nitrogen.

But I couldn't really get it to dry because my low humidity typically is 60%. It would dry some during the day but seemed to re-absorb a lot of atmospheric moisture overnight (usually I get to about 95% humidity at night.

It did make a good one year pasture cover. I had 8 horses on 6 acres and it pretty much stayed even with them.

Ralph


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## MFSuper90 (Jun 26, 2015)

Teslan said:


> If you want to go back to alfalfa within a year or two go with the Teff. But if you want to try grass orchard/brome (stay away from fescue). Stay with it for at least 5 years. I got 4 cuttings of Teff this year. I should have fertilized the last two cuttings. You don't need a Tedder. A wheel rake will be fine. Fertilizer for grass costs a lot more then Teff. The seed costs a lot more also. If you have weeds you might have to spray either before first cutting. But if you get a good stand you shouldn't have to spray the grass again following seasons. You will not get to much production the first year with orchard/brome. But following years you should almost make more on one cutting of orchard then all cuttings of Teff. For me Teff is a good rotation for alfalfa but not a long term crop. People like it but you can't charge more for it. You will need to irrigate grass or Teff a lot more then alfalfa. But the good thing about grass or Teff you don't have to worry about shattering leaves if you don't have enough dew. That is the best feature over alfalfa there is.


If a guy were to plant orchard/brome and wanted good production the first year, would teff (planted at a cut rate) make a good nurse crop? I know this can be accomplished with oats or annual ryegrass, but after haying perennial ryegrass I really want to stay away Frome anything that has rye in the name. Have you or anyone you know had any experience with a nurse crop on a new grass stand?


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## Joseph K (Feb 20, 2014)

Thank you so much for the replys all. So after the establishment year, the Orchard mix field may be even in tonnage or even better than teff am I understanding that correctly ? I don't have an issue committing the field for a couple years, I just need to really try to get the bang for my buck, we've just expanded and so we have the new payments on the field as well as on some nicer equipment like the moco so for the next 2 or 3 years everything is going to be very tight, no room for error on my part. And Nebtrac yes we are under flood irrigation here, so I should be able to keep either one watered pretty well. Another question, the ground is pretty salty, I'll be starting to add gypsum this year and try to begin to remove some sodium, but the ph on the soil tests comes out around 7.9- 8.3, and in a couple really bad spots up to 8.7. How would that effect the performance of these two? Also, is there another good forage crop I'm overlooking? I'm really only set up to hay, so going to any grains really doesn't help right now because I'll spend all my profits in custom work and trucking.


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