spring planted winter rye?

[bornagain62511]

So has anyone else been planting rye in the spring and could you please share your experience? I'm not sure after reading through this thread if Dipper was saying it would be ok to plant rye as early as early May in Wisconsin? Seems like he may have recommended more like June or July?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

What do you want to accomplish with the winter rye? Are you looking to feed the deer this spring? Food for fall? Just trying to improve the soil? Suppress weeds for a certain time frame?

When I plant winter rye my objective is to feed the deer as early as possible in the spring, to improve soil, and to have something growing until I plant my fall plot in July. Normally I plant mine in the fall, so to have it come up early spring, but I have also planted it in March, and I had some fresh growth a few weeks later for deer to eat. Winter rye grows quick when the temps are above mid 40’s.

 

[bornagain62511]

What do you want to accomplish with the winter rye? Are you looking to feed the deer this spring? Food for fall? Just trying to improve the soil? Suppress weeds for a certain time frame?

When I plant winter rye my objective is to feed the deer as early as possible in the spring, to improve soil, and to have something growing until I plant my fall plot in July. Normally I plant mine in the fall, so to have it come up early spring, but I have also planted it in March, and I had some fresh growth a few weeks later for deer to eat. Winter rye grows quick when the temps are above mid 40’s.

mostly to provide food from October through March. We've planted Winfred Forage Rape in July and have it get waist hi by October and the deer feed on it heavily from September through winter but some years they have it eaten to the ground by February. The stems can get nearly 1" in diameter and last year we had deer in mid April when alfalfa was greening up already and the deer were still feeding heavily on the stems of the Winfred Rape. They eat the leaves first but by mid late winter usually all that is left is the stems which they will eat nearly to the ground. Was thinking perhaps some spring planted rye would provide more food for late winter/early spring

but as dipper posted, the deer use the spring planted rye in the fall just as much since it continues to send up new growth. just wondering if anyone else has had experience with this, and how early in the spring did you plant the rye?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

If you are looking for fall/winter/spring food, I would plant it Labor Day weekend.

 

[bornagain62511]

If you are looking for fall/winter/spring food, I would plant it Labor Day weekend.

For quite a few years we used to plant it at that time, then we started planting it in early August and it works much better at attracting deer all fall and winter when planted in early August compared to planting late August or early September around here (southern WI). I'm thinking planting even earlier would be better as Dipper says throughout this thread.

 

[James P. Bipps]

WF, Have you come up with a plan for an “earlier” planting date? Would you care to share it with us? I just might give it a try based on these recent treads (based on old threads). It depends on what my plots look like after this snow melts. I’ve always thought a rye or oats combined with Frosty Berseem clover would be an ideal early planted plot. Keep us updated, please.

 

[Wild Thing]

Interesting thread which I just saw for the first time. I have fall-planted rye for decades but have never planted it in the spring - although I have planted oats and mammoth red clover in played out brassica plots in the spring and then disced it in for green manure for my fall-planted rye or wheat. I don't turn my dirt anymore since I went to no-till a few years ago but I don't see that as an issue. I am in Upper Michigan - zone 4b so I am primarily interested in rye being a fall attractant with some winter-spring carryover to give them more winter and early spring feed.

At one time I used to plant around Labor Day or even later but in more recent years have moved that up to mid-August. After reading this thread, I'm thinking maybe I could get more tonnage by planting it even earlier - like when I plant my brassicas in mid-July. The only issue is that I too have always subscribed to the new growth being more palatable theory so I haven't wanted to plant "too early".

I think I may try drilling some rye in July this year and see what happens. Nothing ventured...nothing gained as they say.

 

[bornagain62511]

WF, Have you come up with a plan for an “earlier” planting date? Would you care to share it with us? I just might give it a try based on these recent treads (based on old threads). It depends on what my plots look like after this snow melts. I’ve always thought a rye or oats combined with Frosty Berseem clover would be an ideal early planted plot. Keep us updated, please.

Hi James, in addition to planting rye earlier than recommended in recent years, I've read about and talked to some people about this, and I've decided to plant rye mixed with a little bit of Winfred forage brassica sometime soon here in southwest WI. Should have it in by mid-May at the latest. I will post updates. Thinking of doing around 80-90 pounds of rye per acre with about 2 pounds of Winfred forage brassica per acre. we've planted the Winfred before here in late July and it gets nearly waist hi and the deer use it heavily from September through mid April. I need to keep the Winfred seed rate down around 2 pounds per acre so it doesn't shade out the rye too much. we plant solid stands of Winfred forage brassica at around 4 to 5 pounds per acre

 

[bornagain62511]

I planted 4.2 acres today with around 80 pounds per acre of winter rye, and about 2.25 pounds per acre of Winfred Forage Brassica. It will be interesting to see how this turns out and how the deer use it from September through April of 2020.

 

[Steven Tolly]

So what happens to the rye I planted last fall that is still growing. Mine never gets very tall because the deer seem to keep it mowed. I am planning on replanting those plots as soon as Iowa drys out for a day or two.

 

[bornagain62511]

So what happens to the rye I planted last fall that is still growing. Mine never gets very tall because the deer seem to keep it mowed. I am planning on replanting those plots as soon as Iowa drys out for a day or two.

around here in SW Wisconsin, rye that was planted last fall is around knee hi, and by mid June will be 5+ feet tall and seed out. Once the seed mature, the plant dies and turns brown. Are they still browsing your rye this time of the year? how tall is it?

 

[Steven Tolly]

I have not been down to the farm for about a month and they were hitting hard on my last card pull. It never gets very high. I assume they keep it mowed down. It is certainly not knee high or even ankle.

 

[weekender21]

I spring (March) planted WR and MRC on a few new plots just to get something growing. If I had to do it again I'd probably wait until fall to clear and start these new plots, the native weeds get a pretty good jump on food plot seed. Although, a few of these plots did look pretty good a few weeks ago.

This one is doing the best. Cleared (dozer) and planted in March, picture taken early May. I added 10 pounds of BW to this plot in May.

This one isn’t bad but has a few more weeds and quite a few saplings. The saplings were purposely left to retain top soil. Again, cleared and planted in March, WR and MRC. Picture is from early May.

The other cleared areas are even more weedy. I’m planning to heavily broadcast BW on all these spring planted plots in June.



Below is my experience with a fall (September) cleared and seeded plot.

I was fortunate to broadcast my seed 24 hours before a 12” soaker from hurricane Florence. WR, WW, oats, crimson clover, MRC, PTT, DER and DR.

Pictures from November 2018 (2 months after planting):

Pictures from May 2019:

No disking, plowing, drilling, herbicide or fertilizer on any plot. Just lime, seed and rain.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Once you get your CEC and organic mater up fertilizer becomes a thing of the past. TNM from here on out.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

S.T. - What is CEC's effect on growth ?? I know it stands for cation exchange - something. Is there a standard value for a good rating ?? ( like pH of 6.5 to 7.0 is good for most things ).

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I have seen tables that show yield based off of CEC and soil organic matter. It broke it down to show yield based off off the percentages of each with no additional inputs.
I cant recall where i saw them but it was in an Archeletta, Brown, or Brant video I believe.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I'll have to research more.

 

[pinetag14]

Does anyone just let their rye/oats go to seed and die back naturally without cutting it in the summer or fall? Would the seed still be viable for self re-seeding? Are there any negative impacts by leaving it standing all summer?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

On some of my plots I mow the fall seeded Rye in early Sept. to "release" the seed for a fall plot. I doubt you'd get much of a stand if you just left it to naturally happen. I have learned that when doing this not to plant anything that you want to establish in the fall because the "seed rate" of the mowed stand is way to heavy to allow anything else to grow.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^ Good bit of info there, S.T. We've not done this with our rye, but it's good to know for future possibilities.