| Not terminating winter rye |
|
||
|
By:
Julius Koenig
Date:21-Jun-23
|
My fall planted winter rye is ready to terminate. Curious if any of you have let it go for a season? Is there any deer or wildlife benefit of the mature seed head? Too much competition the following year?
|
By:
APauls
Date:21-Jun-23
|
I've heard from guys up here that there is a time in October when all of a sudden the deer came through and wiped out all the heads. It's like they didn't touch it, and then all of a sudden at one point in time in the fall it was the main attraction.
|
By:
Julius Koenig
Date:21-Jun-23
|
Thanks!
|
By:
Missouribreaks
Date:21-Jun-23
|
Deer and turkeys will both consume the heads.
|
By:
Pat Lefemine
Date:21-Jun-23
|
Make sure you get awnless winter wheat. Deer will devour the awnless head but they don’t care for the conventional heads.
|
By:
KsRancher
Date:21-Jun-23
|
If your not wanting to put a crop this summer. Just leave it stand. Probably have to spray it to keep weeds from taking it. Whenever you would normally plant your rye go in there and spread some fertilizer on it and lightly disc it. When you get a rain on it your set. Won't have to buy seed or drill it.
|
By:
t-roy
Date:21-Jun-23
|
Are you just going to leave it standing, Julius? If so, you might consider seeding some brassicas or clover into it, and get some additional fall/winter forage as well. They probably won’t grow as well, due to the standing rye shading them out somewhat, but some is better than nothing. You could also consider seeding into the rye, then knocking it down. There will still be lots of rye seed and heads, that the deer and turkeys can forage for, plus you will have a lot (almost too much sometimes) of volunteer rye that will grow in the fall and still be green into the winter.
|
By:
Catscratch
Date:21-Jun-23
|
I plant my fall plots to three cereals; winter rye, awnless wheat, and awnless triticale. Plus some clovers. If I leave it for the summer I end up with deer eating cereal heads at three different times, clovers, and usually some weeds like ragweed. Great food source and habitat for lots of critters with very little work. So... yes you can leave your rye and it probably will get eaten, and it likely get weedy.
|
By:
Julius Koenig
Date:21-Jun-23
|
Truth is I’m probably going to cut it tonight. There isn’t much growing under it right now as it was a failed brassica plot that got rye last fall. Was just curious what people’s experience with it has been.
I think I am going to broad cast some left over soybeans into and then brush hog it. We have a few days of rain coming. Thanks for all the insight.
|
By:
drycreek
Date:21-Jun-23
|
We don’t have to make those decisions here, the hogs will eat the heads as soon as they get ripe. :-(
|
By:
Bow Crazy
Date:22-Jun-23
|
My deer don't seem to eat the seed heads here for some reason. What I've done in the past is just them them and mowed them around the first of September to spread the seed out. It has worked great, I get a nice field of fresh cereal rye sprouts for the fall. BC
|
By:
Pat Lefemine
Date:22-Jun-23
|
Make sure you get awnless winter wheat. Deer will devour the awnless head but they don’t care for the conventional heads.
|
By:
Catscratch
Date:22-Jun-23
|
My awnless triticale went from heads to no heads almost over night. Once they decide it's time they hammer it.
I did brushhog my cereals last night (against what I recommended in my earlier post). The clovers planted in them last fall didn't take and the only grain left was rye so I decided to put in a summer crop. Probably will do a mix of buckwheat, millet, milo, and sunflowers. Suppose it will depend on what the CO-OP tells me when I call them.
|
By:
Stressless
Date:01-Jul-23
|
Interesting, the question was on Rye, Winter Wheat and Triticale were both introduce into the thread.
Here's a expert explanation of the varieties, Rye and Triticale, for grazing and when they perform the best. For me when spring greenup hits the Whitetails no longer need or desire the cereal grains in the plots. Overseeding cereals into the legumes shifts the browse to legumes at spring greenup as the rye bolts then brushhogged and/or is terminated with IMOX. Brushhogging the rye makes a huge diffrenece in the thatch(water holding) and organic matter available to the legumes through the summer.
(Triticale is a cross between Winter Wheat and Rye)
I either terminated rye with IMOX in mid April or cut it in the dough stage in mid-June. I hit the cut on the plots just right as the grass and other weed seed heads were in the dough stage as well. One of rye's other benefits is its allelopathic effect, or weed suppression, that Winter Wheat and Triticale do not provide.
|
By:
Shuteye
Date:02-Jul-23
|
I planted winter wheat for a cover crop in my garden last October. It came up great and the deer were in it all winter. This spring I disked half of it under and let half grow since I don't need half the garden. I came into seed and the birds and deer were flocking to it. I disked it under about a week ago and we have had some heavy rain. The wheat is now coming up and I am going to see what happens.
