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NE Iowa | We don't make any silage and try to only bale dry hay. Got started using the ryegrass because I got tired of the poor seedings when using oats. We usually tried to combine the oats and anywhere the oats went down the alflafa would get smothered out. Getting oats dry enough to bale without rain can be difficult most years. So that is what got me started with the ryegrass. I try to plant it as soon as it is dry enough to go after the frost comes out. On a typical year that is around the last week of March or first week of April. It it usually ready to cut for the first time around June 10th-15th. I like to have all cuttings made by Sept. 1st. I'm just a beef cattle guy so seeing some blooms on the alfalfa doesn't bother me. On a normal year I get about 4.5 tons of dry hay the seeding year. Last year was so dry I only got 2 cuttings because everything went dormant so yields were down. The ryegrass dries faster then the alfalfa so it basically is treated the same for me as established hay fields other then cutting height. I normally cut alfalfa at about 2.5" cutting height but on the seeding fields with ryegrass cover crop I raise the cutting height up to about 4". The ryegrass doesn't like to be cut real short. My seed comes from local feed store and he keeps wanting me to dry new varieties of it. It all comes from Farm Science Genetics. I started with Big Daddy, then DH-3, and this year going to try King. I think it's around $65 for 50# and about 12# per acre.
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cover crop for alfalfa
