# baling rye grass?



## Whistling Dixie

Here's one for all you well experienced and battle hardened hay masters. A gentleman approached my dad (who happens to own the local feed store) about baling rye grass for him. My dad told him we could bale it without either of us ever baling the first blade of rye grass. This guy is a bit unusual insomuch that he wants to wait until it goes to seed before baling it, he's convinced it will reseed itself. He's not concerned with the lack of nutritive value in this practice so I guess I don't care one way or the other. Here's my basic question, I'm concerned that rye grass despite being thick will not yield enough dry matter to even break even. Does anyone have any experience in baling rye grass if so please share your thoughts. I almost forgot, I will be square baling it.


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## geiselbreth

o yea if he planted to 50 lbs per acre and fertilized it right could produce as much as 20000lbs per acre the time to cut is the doe stage if u cut to early really hard to dry need a conditioner and a fluffer bale in 4 days with low humitity and tedding do it ever year


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## ButchAutomatic

If he wants to wait for the rye to go to seed for reseeding, you will be baling straw


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## Whistling Dixie

That's what I thought, maybe he needs a lot of bedding.


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## aussiehayman

dont really know what its like for u guys in the US but here at my place downunder i cut my rye crop early and it reshoots after cutting and produces plenty of seed for the next season......otherwise u will be making straw. charge him per acre not per bale


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## swmnhay

Are you talking Annual Ryegrass?

If he lets it go to seed there will be seed in the hay also.This could be an issue when/where the manure gets hauled.

If you are just custom baling it there will be a lot more tonnage at mature stage.It can be a bitch to get dry.

I had some that got mature last yr because of weather.3.2 ton acre on first cut.10% protien.Cut on time I expect 15-18% protien.


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## vhaby

Whistling Dixie's question concerned baling ryegrass. Ryegrass and cereal rye are two different grasses. Also, ryegrass "downunder" most likely is a perennial ryegrass, not Italian annual ryegrass as normally grown in Texas as a cool-season annual grass.

Now, the question about waiting until the ryegrass seed matures to bale the forage depends on the density of the stand of ryegrass, and, on what the warm-season grass is that follows the annual ryegrass. If the ryegrass stand is quite dense and the succeeding warm-season grass is a hybrid bermudagrass, waiting until the ryegrass has matured seed can shade out the hybrid bermudagrass. However, if the annual ryegrass stand is not real dense, waiting to bale the ryegrass until it matures seed to shatter upon cutting, raking, and baling is not such a bad idea. I have done this twice and have a nice crop of volunteer ryegrass the next season. In a low density ryegrass stand with warm-season hybrid bermudagrass ('Coastal'), the ryegrass matures seed about the time the bermudagrass is near ready for the first cutting. Cutting the ryegrass "straw" with a slightly early cutting of the bermudagrass produces some good nutritive value hay when fertilized with about 70 lbs on N, along with P and K as recommended from a soil test.

If the ryegrass to be harvested at seed maturity is planted on cultivated ground, that is an entirely different matter.


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## OkhayBallr

Heres some marshal rye I cut yesterday, it looks pretty good to me, if it will dry out.....


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## rank

maybe he wants it for straw.


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