Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
Does the trit grow as well as WR without a drill to aid in planting? Asking for all us solo-spreader types.
Winter Triticale vs Winter Rye
- Thread starter SD51555
- Start date
There is 220ac of triticale on the farm this winter. Same area, farmer, plant date, surrounding ag.... Last year there a "wild night" would be 2 dozen deer....this year, with similar temps/precip it maybe 75. It is roughly the same skew for averages with 12-15 and 40ish. Not sure if last years first time planting needed palette approval or there was some big factor i was neglecting.....but it is a pretty big draw.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
For me, it performed the same. I've never drilled a seed on my place.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
I go back and forth. Deer seem to prefer wheat a little more so thought is triticale is preferred more here. But honestly I think they like rye good enough.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
^ ^ ^ ^ Now I see what you mean by "past premium forage quality." At first, I thought you meant while it was still 4" to 12" or so, it somehow lost a lot of its nutrient appeal to deer. Gotcha now, SD. Thanks!
We have rolled rye down after we seeded brassicas into it for fall / winter plots. That rye worked great as a mulch over top.
We have rolled rye down after we seeded brassicas into it for fall / winter plots. That rye worked great as a mulch over top.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
For anyone wanting to try it, keep in mind it's just a bag of seed, and will do at least 80% of what any other cereal grain will also do. If you're curious, get a bag, carve out a place to use it, let'er rip and see what happens in your area. If you're in the trial mood, I'd also get a bag of awnless winter wheat. @Catscratch has been planting that for years and turned me on to it. I planted it once, and it did great for me, and it was fun to see the deer eat all the heads off.
When I was getting ready to roll last summer, I just noticed that the trit was taller and had thicker stems than rye. That's a big deal for me, may not be a big deal for someone else. My biggest end goal was having the heaviest high-carbon residue blanket possible. The rest of the considerations are secondary to me, but still important.
I have pondered trying @S.T.Fanatic 's winter barley. There's some risk it doesn't survive winter up by me, but I'm still curious about it. It won't hit my high biomass goal, but I've also got areas where I'm having trouble getting other cereals to go. Most importantly, I'm just naturally curious and I want to see what happens.
When I was getting ready to roll last summer, I just noticed that the trit was taller and had thicker stems than rye. That's a big deal for me, may not be a big deal for someone else. My biggest end goal was having the heaviest high-carbon residue blanket possible. The rest of the considerations are secondary to me, but still important.
I have pondered trying @S.T.Fanatic 's winter barley. There's some risk it doesn't survive winter up by me, but I'm still curious about it. It won't hit my high biomass goal, but I've also got areas where I'm having trouble getting other cereals to go. Most importantly, I'm just naturally curious and I want to see what happens.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I went back to the archives and dug up my pre-roll pics from the yard plot. This is where my 'ah-ha' moment hit. The trit is in the black circles, the rye is in the blue circles. This is the height and stem thickness comparisons. It even outstretched the yellow sweet clover. In my original YSC plot, the YSC overtook the rye at the end.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Yes, that is the YSC. That plot, I'm pretty sure I put in a per acre rate of:
1 bu/ac trit
1 bu/ac rye
1 lb YSC
1 lb alfalfa
1 lb balansa
1 lb chicory
That plot is a 1/10th acre plot just off my lawn at camp. That's gonna get expanded to a quarter acre this coming year if I get around to it. So on these smaller plots, I'm down to a cup or two of some of these seeds or less. If it's gonna be a small blend like that, I'll put a few pints of flax in as a carrier.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
No, I screwed this whole cycle up. I went to roll when all those biennials were toast for the year. I thought it would be too soon for the trit, so I just went oats, and way too thick on the oats. They all stunted and that plot was so damn tight, nothing was gonna hit the soil after that deed was done.
I thought about trying a rescue seeding of spring barley after the snow melts, but there's about zero chance that seed is gonna get anywhere near the soil with all that residue there. So instead, I'm gonna hit it early with a cheap brassica like rape, and also flax and japanese millet.
After I realized my mistake, I did overseed with all the small seeds (alfalfa, YSC, balansa, chicory, and red clover). I really don't know how this is going to come up in spring, or what I'll get out of it.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I broadcasted oats into the blend you saw in the pics above, and then rolled it down. I later came back and spread the small seed blend over the top of the flattened plot.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Ten bushels, yes. Not 50 lbs clover though. I bet I only used a measuring cup of the small seeds. I didn't go hot on the small seeds.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Understand, I've been plotting with less than 5 inches of rain in a 6 month growing season for 4 years. I've spread a lot of seed that never germinated. It just so happened as soon as I had all those oats down, I got 1.5" of rain, and every single oat germinated and shot right through that duff layer, and that duff layer held onto every drop of water and whif of humidity for the rest of the season. I could have broadcasted coconuts with those conditions and gotten 100% germination success.
How does triticale compare to winter rye with tolerance to growing in sandy soil? Also, when you would plant either in summer or fall if the goal was to maximize winter food tonnage in SE MN?
I have about 1/2 acre of sandy ground that struggles with my standard soybean, corn and brassica rotation, so I'm thinking about planting either winter rye or triticale in this area. Maybe I'll put in a spring cover crop of some type to build up some organic matter and then follow up with a triticale or rye plot in late summer. I've seen some pretty impressive cover crops down here that grew about a foot tall when they were planted after sweet corn harvest in August. I'm hoping to replicate that on my place.
I have about 1/2 acre of sandy ground that struggles with my standard soybean, corn and brassica rotation, so I'm thinking about planting either winter rye or triticale in this area. Maybe I'll put in a spring cover crop of some type to build up some organic matter and then follow up with a triticale or rye plot in late summer. I've seen some pretty impressive cover crops down here that grew about a foot tall when they were planted after sweet corn harvest in August. I'm hoping to replicate that on my place.
Here is one idea-
For $43 get a bag of Summer Soil Builder at Greencover. Or Summer Release for $53 with free shipping. Either will do an acre so put it down a little heavy with a drill or seeder or kill it with gly and hand seed it right before a rain. Think that would be good for your sand.
In late August or Labor Day kill it and go back through with a $35 bag of Fall Release. You will have small grains and some brassicas in the mix. To me- small grains by themselves aren’t really winter food like you are looking for. Mine are mowed flat by the deer. It’s good not great.
If you look at my “Happy Accident Plot” post, I did 50/50/50 mix which is 50# rye grain, 50# oats and 50# peas. It was good and you could easily do all triticale or replace the rye grain with triticale. I feel like the fall release is a better all fall, all winter, comes up green in the spring plan. Both attractiveness and nutrition.
Either way- you keep building up your organic matter
