rye grass

Can someone give me the feed value information on rye grass hay? I have looked online and cannot find much on it. What has been peoples experiences with it?

Cant help you with the feed value but I can tell you one year we cut and baled a field, this was a wild field. Is that what you are talking about? Then in the winter I would alternate feeding one of the wild rye and one grass. The cows liked eating it and did well with that scenario. I have noticed so much wild rye fields being cut and baled around here that I have never seen done before. I think that people finally realized that it will be a tough year again and that it makes good cattle feed. I would do more it giving the chance. Just another note. The baler broke and it layed in the field and was not even green anymore by the time it was baled, still was good though.

Many guys around here are planting it as a cover crop then baling it and planting beans in the same fields. My neighbor planted some and I have the chance to buy it all very cheaply. Just wanted some info and how it feeds compared to others. The calves and cows seem to like the little bit they have had of it.

Depending on when its cut, it can make excellent quality hay. Even after it heads, the energy levels decline but it still has relatively high protein %.  About 1/2 of my first cutting every year is rye grass.

There's enough sugar in it one shouldn't feed it to horses that are susceptible to founder.

Rye grass hay show an average of 90% dry matter, 10,6 % protein, NDF around 64,4% and 39,5% ADF.

Fertilize it and cut it before it boots and it'll be nearly twice that

This is our first year using it but we baled it and have been running pairs on it for over a month since we baled it. It took a lot longer than we ever thought to dry, almost a week. The pairs look great and just curious how the cows will like the hay. Definitely going to drill more this fall.

tf82 said:

This is our first year using it but we baled it and have been running pairs on it for over a month since we baled it. It took a lot longer than we ever thought to dry, almost a week. The pairs look great and just curious how the cows will like the hay. Definitely going to drill more this fall.

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This is quite common with rye grass, it is hard to dry.  It does feed well.

Don't have to worry about feeding it. It caught on fire and almost burnt down our new shop/hay barn. I wont bale it again unless we wet bale it and tube line it. other than that still like it.

We baled it, just sent off for hay test this week. I will try to remember to post the results here. It did not take any longer to dry than the rest of the hay, but we baled on a nice dry week in early May out here.
Sorry to hear about your hay fire, that just stinks. We are getting ready to bale the same field again, but this time the clover came in real strong. It will take longer to bale with 60% clover in it!