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Southeast Wisconsin | Looking to put in a cover crop after corn if we can get it in early enough. Will be soybeans next year. What are the advantages of using Rye over bin run wheat. Local rye price for seed is around $11/bushel where wheat is around $4 or less. Any input appreciated, and any other ideas would be great too. |
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West KY, Miss River County | Not a bad price for rye this year. Of course wheat is down also. On the surface the wheat route looks to be cheaper. For a cover crop a bu of either would be adequate unless a bad erosion problem is anticipated.
Flown on or planted early, the rye would probably give you better early growth. More roots and deeper roots for rye also.
My personal preference is to wait until about 6-7 days after the first cool fall rain, burn down with roundup, and put down rye with an airflow truck. Very light tillage such as a Phillips harrow or a light disking. Go fishing. True this normally is not really 'early' but it helps weed control without working the ground too much. Next spring there will be a nice even stand of small grain foliage that is easy to burn down and the soil is stabilized and mellow.
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Southeastern Alberta | Not a bad price for rye??? I sold a super B of it for $3.57 Canadian/bu at the bin today and its a good price. Maybe you guys should grow some for seed not just for cover crops!
Anyway, rye will have better growth early on and will often have double the root mass of wheat by spring. |
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West KY, Miss River County | Obviously I was talking about seed, he was planting it. Forage type Burusie (sp) crosses, Wholesale-to dealers- from Nashville TN $12.50. Retail $14-15 depending on how far it is trucked.
I know everybody gets a better deal but I bet you could find someone to sell it to you for $18 or so if we tried. |
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Southeastern Alberta | Just plant common for a cover crop. Thats my point, bin run would work great for the application. |
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Southeastern Alberta | Just got an email about this. no idea where you are but these guys are selling rye for $9/bu if you are close to them.
http://www.greencoverseed.com/
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Pennsylvania | Bushel of rye here in Pennsylvania can be had for $6 to $8. |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | I think from what I have seen the rye works well as a cover crop in areas where it is traditionally very wet at planting time. Rye seems to suck a lot of moisture from the ground and does make a mass of vegetative material to mulch between the rows. Wheat won't suck as much moisture out of the ground which may be good or bad depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Wheat will not have the amount of surface vegetative matter but it does have a better root mass than the rye....Wheat probably kills easier than rye. On the other hand rye when it is green does strip till nicely if caught early. Probably better than green wheat.
Here's a video of strip tilling into a rye cover crop which had been sprayed with Round-up but is still very green as you can see.click on "HQ" in the lower RH corner to see better.
Jim at Dawn
Edited by Jim 9/4/2009 07:18
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 Ashburn, GA, (very close to Heaven!) | Rye is my choice, both for the root system and the above ground biomass. Rye cover lasts longer if you strip till into it than wheat. We like that stuff to get big, spray it and kill it, then plant right into it.
(CtnSTillPlt1.JPG)
(CtnSTillPlt2.JPG)
Attachments ----------------
CtnSTillPlt1.JPG (59KB - 181 downloads)
CtnSTillPlt2.JPG (67KB - 159 downloads)
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UP / Thumb of Michigan | If you need to plant a grass cover, rye has some advantages (as mentioned) over wheat. Cost to seed isn't one of them, so I guess you need to decide if there's enough advantage. Personally, I'd still go for the rye for a few reasons:
1. Big wheat and small rye are equally hard to kill. I've had way more problems killing wheat over the years.
2. Although I've not seen this myself, I have a neighbor who plants quite a few acres of cover crops. He told me this week that wheat always seemed to attract bad bugs that liked to chew his cash crops in the spring. Rye didn't do that. I don't doubt him, he's pretty good at scouting and such. There were some folks on here last week that said they had army worm problems (I think) if they had rye in the neighborhood, and I don't dispute that, either.
3. In my area, there's 10's of thousands of bushels of $1 a bu sprouted wheat available that'll work for almost anything you want it to do- except make flour. Even with that, I sold out of my last rye last night. I had quite a few totes left a week ago, and I'm going to load the last one out soon. Obviously some here feel its better than wheat I guess. I raise more of a specialty type variety, but I was selling mine for close to 23 cents a lb. . If I could get rye for 6 to 8 bucks, I'd sure be all over it. I feel rye should sell for 2 and a 1/2 times the value of wheat here. Nothing magic about that number I suppose, just that I've grown both for a few years.
4. ANY cover is better than nothing. If you're still not sure rye's worth more, for gosh sakes go with the wheat rather than leave it bare. |
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Central MN | What in Gods name is special about this $11.00 Rye? It would almost pay to ship my Rye to whereever you are for that price. The Cash Market for Milling Rye in this area is $3.50 /bu. Is this a special variety?, Cleaned a "Special" way?
Sounds like I need to quit growing Rye for Flour and start growing it for seed. |
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| what variety do you grow |
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UP / Thumb of Michigan | I've been raising a variety that I think is much better (for a cover) than some other varities I've tried. I have customers who agree, some have bought from me for a lot of years now. I've always tried to encourage them to produce their own rather than buy it from me or anyone else for that matter, but to date they'd rather buy it. I'm out of the rye business after this year, so some in fact did buy some rye for seed production from me this summer.
As far as values go, its a what the market will bear deal I suppose. Rye used to be plentiful in my area. very hard to source now. Much of what comes into this area is from Canada, and thats even a hit or miss deal availability wise.
Our wheat yields here run from 80-110 bpa. A 40 bpa rye crop doesn't compete at all with wheat @ $3.50 rye.
Edited by pat-michigan 9/4/2009 08:57
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| out of rye business because of the economics?? verse rye, or just dont want to bother with it. |
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UP / Thumb of Michigan | Rented the farm out. If not for that, I'd rather raise rye vs wheat as long as the economics are there. Wheat has been a miserable SOB in this area for a couple of years.
I originally wanted to make sure that I had a supply of rye for a cover. After looking at different varieties, I wanted to make sure that I had a supply of the variety I wanted to use as well.
I do think that theres room for a beginning or smaller acerage farmer to produce cover crops to sell. It takes some work and the ability to market and ship, but it can be done. |
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| thanks for your answer, last questions. what do you use to clean your seed with, and know of any other sources of your variety of rye. |
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Vincennes, IN | If I were to use wheat as a cover, would there be any concern as to sowing it before the local fly-free date. IE would I cause problems for wheat sown for grain in the nearby area? |
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Central MN | I used to grow a variety called Rymin (As in Minnesota Rye, it was Developed by the U of MN). We switched to a variety called Remington a few years ago as some testing showed it ended up with higher test wts and Falling Numbers.
There are a few differnt varieties out there but its not a very economically important crop so it has not gotten much attention in the plant breeding area over the years.
Edited by MNRyeGrower 9/4/2009 11:46
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| tried some rymin, was a crop failure for me. |
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Central MN | Where are you located? Rye can be a funny crop. ON ground you mght think is wonderfull it will grow slow. ON dry hilly ground it might be a bumper crop. Although a cool season crop, it does not like cold wet soil. |
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| was on rolling light ground in nw michigan |
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