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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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Wheat vs. Winter Rye as Cover Crops
