Planting Rye for cool season forag

[Ashley]

Is the Perennial Rye the right stuff?

[buckrun]

We plant annual rye for winter graze.  The most common type is called 'gulf rye'.  We have an order coming in next week for the improved variety called Marshall. Your night time temps need to be consistently below 65 before you seed or they will not break dormancy in great numbers.  Perennial rye is good- we have an Italian Rye which comes back every year but dies down in summer.  The goats love eating the seed heads in late spring so we have to pull them off until it seeds.  Get a bit of white clover seed to mix in with the rye.  It will come up and grow slowly all winter and then go nuts in spring and help your spring grasses feed.
Good luck!

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/CoverCrops/whiteclover.pdf