Extending the Grazing Season with Small Grains

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Extending the Grazing Season with Small Grains
By Clif Little OSU Extension Guernsey County
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Annual ryegrass, Oats, Wheat, Cereal rye,
Sudangrass or Sorghum-Sudan. All of these grasses
will benefit form an application of Nitrogen.
Forage Quality is good and averages 12 C.P. and
55 T.D.N. Planting date depends on when and how
much forage you want.
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Annual GrassesWinter Summer BMR Sorghum Cereal
rye Winter wheat Trical wheat X rye Grazing Corn
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Sorghum-Sudangrass a summer annual Usually seeded
in May or June at appx. 30lb/A. Can be no-tilled
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Brown Midrib Sorghum-Sudangrass Provides several
thousands of DM/A in August
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Annual ryegrass can be seeded broadcast, no-till,
conventional at a rate of 25-40 lb/A
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Two applications of Roundup July and 1st week of
Aug. Planted Aug. 25th Spring Oats 2bu/A
annual ryegrass 30 lbs/A, broadcast by hand.
Before
After
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No-till Oats 2/Bu/A, Planted Aug 25
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No-till Spring Oats Seeded directly into grass
sod, Planting last week Aug. Seeding rate 1.5
bu/A
Oats
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Spring oats 1.5 bu/A, 1bu winter wheat/A, 30lbs
annual ryegrass/A. Plot had one application of
Roundup, July, light disc, and broadcast planting
last week of Aug.
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Aerial Seeding 1lb. Turnips, 1bu.Oats and 30lb.
Rye/A 8/20
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Corn, Oats, annual ryegrass, turnips
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Annual ryegrass Seeded August 20 Growth Sept. 7
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Annual Rye grass 2bu/A aerial seeded into
standing corn
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Oats, cereal rye, turnips
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Cliff Schuette Turnips and Cereal Rye Airseed
8/25 Barkant Turnips-3 lbs Rye 2 Bu Airplane
8/Acre Corn 183 Bu/acre Atrazine 1 lb Partner
April 28
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Cereal Rye at EARS Planted Sept. 10th, broadcast
2 bu/A, range 60-110 drilling, no-till 90-120
broadcast 150lbs/A Onto disked soil, 50 units of
nitrogen Grazing started 74 days later Yield-Fall
1980 lbs DM/A Spring 2670 lbs DM/A, Total costs
90/A Produces adequate quantities of Fall
Forage. Hard to keep-up with in Spring.
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John Hebert Beef Stocker Calves Grazing Rye
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John Hebert Beef Stocker Calves Grazing Cereal
Rye produces 415 lbs of beef/A at a cost per
pound of gain 0.242
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John Hebert Inspecting Ryegrass No-till
into Soybean stubble Fall. Grows 814lbs of
beef/A, cost of 0.146 per lb of gain
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OATS
Yields, Planting Method, Quality 5000lbs
DM/A Conventional 24C.P. following wheat
Fertilized 800lbs DM/A No-till directly 14
C.P. into pasture Unfertilized

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In Conclusion, annual grasses can provide
excellent quality abundant forage in the summer,
fall, winter and early spring. They provide many
options for harvest including grazing, silage,
and grain. Annual grasses can be seeded a
variety of ways and make good use of field crop
areas following grain harvest.