What's the best use for 300# of rye?
 

I've lucked up on 250# and have a 50# bag I intended to sprout for my chickens. I want to get the most nutrition out of if it for my critters; how can I do that ? Goats, cows, pigs, rabbits and chickens. And human children. How can I do this best ? Sprout it? Plant it? I'm so excited !!

Perennial or annual? Perennial would be seeded into my pasture- here it's just the right time for that. And it's so pricey now.

Plant it, broadcast it right on top of the snow....

I may be a bit of a worry wort, and may be 100% off base but I would worry just a slight bit on sprouting and feeding rye, my concern being Ergot poisoning... Like I said not sure but I recollect rye is susceptible to Ergot.

Ok I took a second to check out my concerns, just one article but it seems I may be a worry wart...lol

http://www.grit.com/food/lsd-ergot-and-rye-oh-my.aspx

"Apparently ergotism is now rare, and there is a floatation method for cleaning rye seeds. The ergot stage is buoyant and any seeds infected with the fungus will float to the top and can be skimmed off. "

Plant some for future supply and seed. Sprouting releases more nutrients. Fodder gives more volume. Grinding for flour lets you use it for baking. Soaking makes great feed, adding milk products even better....James

Don't know how you came by it but the 50 you have may be the best to eat yourself. Not knowing the storage or handling would be a red flag for me eating it myself and for animal use as is. But if you know, carry on....James

Up here in the cold, one would plant rye in August or September, not now? It does not seed out well at all if planted in spring here.

If just for grazing, then never mind.

Such grains can almost always be used as about 10% of a feed mix.

Planted in early fall, rye is a real soil building plant. It grows a lot of straw the next spring, as well as a deep thick root system of thin roots. It is used by many farmers now a days as a cover crop, to build soils.

Be aware it is aliopathic, in that it sends chemicals into the ground that keep some small seeded crops from sprouting. This can be a good thing for weed control, but can be a bad thing if you want to quickly kill the rye and plant certain crops right away into the ground....

Paul

How do I plant it ? Or should I say where ? ;) Of course y'all can't answer that ... But I planned to fence off my pasture in many paddocks; I guess that's a good place to start ?

Plants just like wheat.

Scatter and rake, about 2 bu per acre for a grain stand. It handles wet or dry pretty good once it gets going.

So interesting.

We used to grow it for grain when dad was in charge,was actually one of the few rye mills in town 5 miles away, would make flour and such. Would truck rye in from 100s of miles away. Anyhow it burned down, and now hard to find a use for many bu of it.....

It makes lots of straw, on the other hand it is course tough straw.

Doesn't need a whole lot of fertilizer, the deep thin roots hunt stuff out in the ground, that's what makes it a good cover crop for soil building.

Paul

The guy who's getting for me lives across the street from the farmer. He grows it. I don't know why - why he grows it or to whom he sells it and for what. I don't feed it to the children and I'm hesitant to feed it to the goats. I figure I can sprout it and at least feed it to the chickens. And maybe I can plant a patch of it here and there. I'm not familiar enough with rye and don't like it as bread well enough to give it a ton of space. I figure I must be able to do something with it that is useful though. Soil building is always welcome.

Rye whiskey?

i got the perfect place for it.. bring it on up ; )

My guess is it is winter rye and would do best planted in the fall and worked into the ground some how. If it is black rye throw it out and it will come up when it is ready, if it is an improved rye, the seed will be more the color of wheat, it isn't nearly as tough as the feral black rye and would need to be planted closer to fall sowing time.

It'll make winter and spring grazing for your animals, you'll want to limit your milk animals pulling them off several hours before milking so your milk hopefully won't have a strong flavor.

Rye Whiskey of course

There is spring rye and winter rye. You need to know when to plant it. I assume you know what type it is???

Also, rye is not good for poultry unless it is 10% or less of the ration. Rye is the worst grain for ergot, which is a deadly poison if ingested. You will see the ergot if it is present. It will look like elongated, black seeds mixed in with the normal seed.

For other animals, rye can be fed up to maybe 20% of ration. But it is not very palatable to most animals. One of the uses of rye is to plant it and graze it. It regrows well, and produces good forage in this way.

I grow fall rye for the distilling and milling market. I have about 6000 bushels in my bins right now. It is hard to sell as feed for the prior mentioned qualities. It is a great crop for a lot of reasons, but with limited uses: The danger factor of ergot, the lack of palatability, the problems with poultry finding it a difficult feed to process.

If it is WELL cleaned, if it has no ergot, if you have other feeds to blend in with it to overcome some of those other issues, it can be well used. But care needs to be taken.

I have never heard of a spring rye. Only ever winter rye.

I'll have to look that up.

I guess in warm climates there is even a winter oats, but obviously not up by me?

Paul

Well now I know why he gave it to me !!

Paisley, I think in the case of rye, you have the best idea of what to do. I think if you sprout it, (I am not a big believer in the supposed benefits most of the time), but in this case, if you let the sprouts get good and long, it would be more usable/palatable and beneficial to your stock. Ergot would not have any affect if you sprouted it like that.

Or, plant it and graze it somewhere. Rye is still useful, it is just not as simple to use as barley, wheat, or corn....

It still has value. Like someone else mentioned, the stuff grows an amazing amount of straw. Last rye I grew was a new, "semi dwarf" variety. Yeah right!!! It was over my 6 foot off the ground head most places. lol.

Spring rye available for sale at a farm about two hours from me:

http://www.trawinseeds.ca/silage_blends/springRye.html

Wish I had some here, I was trying to find some spring barley or spring tritacale but no luck. Ended up planting oats.

duplicate

Paisley, a couple of the comments make me think there may be a little confusion regarding the seed you have. It sounds like you have "winter" rye also called "cereal rye" in some places. It is a grain similar to wheat. Some of the comments regarding it's value as a forage made me think some were referring to "ryegrass" which is a forage. Winter or cereal rye would probably be better used for sprouting or grinding for feed unless you need an emergency pasture. It's an annual and will do it's best to develop a seed head and then die.

"Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry. If I don't drink rye whiskey I think I may die." - Corb Lund

I agree with FarmerDale, I would mix small amounts in with your regular chicken feed. Large amounts can cause digestive problems, and don't feed it to chicks. It will make a great feed addition. My chickens don't like Cereal Rye and will avoid eating it. Mix it as a minor part of your feed as farmerDale suggested and you will be fine.

I planted several acres of Cereal Rye and plan to use it for feed, cover crops and baking.

Okay my post didn't make the most since when I reread it. I would mix it into your regular chicken chow. The chickens will eat it and not avoid picking around it when it is in a small concentration.

No mistake about it thousands of acres of cereal rye are planted each year for forage and hay.

A few guys here seed Fall rye in the spring, then graze it in summer, let it grow a few leaves for fall, let it over winter, graze it in the spring again, and if you remove the animals soon enough, you can then get a decent yield off of it in the seed department in late summer.

More typical though is to seed in fall, graze a bit in spring, ( it is very early and vigourous, growing before grass gets going), and harvest it in late summer.

I simply seed it in fall, and harvest it the next summer. Again, it is a super crop for a lot of reasons. It is amazingly weed competetive, I often get away with no herbicide. It is very winter hardy. The only issue is the limited market, the price, and trying to seed when you should be combining other crops...

hmmm. One more thing about fall rye. If you seed it in the spring, it will not form seed. It needs a hardening off period called vernalization to initiate reproductive growth. Just like winter wheat.