Thoughts on Rye Grass

[Lost Spoke Ranch]

Hi Everyone:

In between foals I've been working on our courtyard planting Bermuda grass last year and this year trying the Patch Perfect grass patch stuff they advertise on TV. From what I've seen from the internet the Patch Perfect grass appears to be Rye grass. If it isn't does anyone know what type of grass it is? It' beginning to germinate and fill in where the Bermuda was having troubles.

My question is, my husband is pleased with how the courtyard is turning out and was asking me about spreading it else where on our property. We live in the desert and we're not familiar with the different type grasses other than our native Buffalo grass and Bermuda. I have read of placental and amniotic sac troubles that Fescue can be related to and would like to know what sort of experiences you may have had with your minis and Rye grass. Have your minis done well with it or would it be best just to steer clear of using it all together? Any thoughts are always most appreciated.

Dawn :saludando:

 

[Lost Spoke Ranch]

No one has any experience with Rye grass. Really?

Dawn :saludando:

 

[Shaladar]

Hi Dawn,

I just saw this.

We have a lot of Rye grass in our pastures. The horses graze it and we also baled it last year. The feedstores around here also sell it. (pretty pricey stuff !!)

The upside to it, is the horses shine like you wouldn't believe. The downside is they gain weight on it. I have to limit thier pasture time.....but, dang, they shine!!!!

Hope this helps.

Sue

 

[Steph_D]

I have no experience with rye grass, but could you please let me know how that Patch Perfect works out for you. I've been thinking about getting some for my bare spots but would like to know if it really works

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[PaintedPromiseRanch]

:saludando: Dawn, sorry i just saw this, but here is my experience with rye... we don't grow any grass here because of the cost of water,

: but we do drive from Wittmann all the way to Buckeye (an hour) to go to the hay seller that sells rye hay. the way i understand it, rye has a protein count similar to bermuda (which just doesn't have the nutrients of alfalfa), and a nutrient content similar to alfalfa (which has way too high a protein count), so you are getting the best of both worlds. we have been feeding rye to all of our equines, from mini to riding, donkeys, mules and horses, for several years, and they have all done very well on it. i do supplement several of them with some bermuda because the rye will, in some animals, cause the runs... the gal warned us to watch for that when we first switched, she said they will all get mild diarrhea for a couple days and then it clears up, but there are a few animals that for whatever reason their system can't handle straight rye and it doesn't clear up. she told us they have one horse on their property (out of 30-40, i can't recall exactly) that can't eat plain rye... and i have found that a couple of my mini donks get loose and stay loose, but supplementing with bermuda seems to take care of that. that's all i know, hope it helps

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[Charlotte]

Are you talking about 'annual rye' which has to be reseeded each year or 'perennial rye' which is a perennial plant?

I do know there can be some very serious nitrate problems with Annual rye. You can have the rye hay and grass tested for nitrate level, but with the grass the nitrate levels can vary widely depending on time of year and climate.

Charlotte

 

[BeckyG]

A common practice in our area is to sew a combination of bermuda grass seeds and rye grass seeds together. The rye is a cool weather grass, so it grows well in the winter here in central TX.

We did this several years ago on the banks of our pond...... with very good success. The two grases compliment each other.

- Becky

 

[Marty]

Ok this is what I do and my experience:

I plant rye every winter, so that when my regular pastures croak for winter, I won't have mud and I will still have something green. I don't do it for the grass, I do it to keep the mud in the pastures at bay. Otherwise I would have nothing but a major mud slide on my hilly fields. Then, come spring, the pastures come back and the rye dies out, or goes dormant; not sure which.

Now, last winter I had a new field that was completely dirt and rock. I put rye grass there, again, to help ward off mud. Well I'll be a son of a gun, it's still there and growing like crazy. The problem here is we are in a draught and have had no rain so my regular pastures never really came up yet. Only the stupid rye. It's coarse, thick, stalky, and apparently nasty to eat. So, I have got this one field full of only dumb rye grass. My stallion Nick is in there. He hates the rye and won't graze it so I have to put hay out there for him.

 

[Shaladar]

I wonder if there are different kinds of Rye? Ours must be perennial, like Charlotte mentioned.

We planted "Pasture Grass" about 15-20 years ago, and it comes back every year. Actually, it never really "dies", the Bermuda does turn brown when it gets cold. All the grasses, (mainly Rye now) are nice thin, fine stems, even when they are 4 feet tall. If we keep it mowed, the rye heads when it it about 6-8 inches tall...it is very adaptable here, I guess.

We do irrigate in the summer.

Sue

 

[wildoak]

We used to overseed with rye every winter, but kind of got scared off of it years ago. It looks great and the horses like it but we were having a serious colic problem which seemed to hit us every winter for several years. We stopped planting the rye and the problem went away for the most part. Now it may have been co-incidental, I don't know. We put something in one field this year that was a grass blend - Horsemans Blend I think, from TSC - and it had a lot of rye in it. It was in a field that the horses had completely wiped out, no grass, so it didn't last long. They nipped every little blade that came up.

Jan

 

[sassy1]

We have a problem here in parts of Australia, mainly in Autumn and Spring with Rye Grass Staggers.

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.nsf/...CF000BBD27?open

 

[carlenehorse]

We plant rye grass every winter here in Southeast Texas. We really don't have harsh winters the lowest it got this last winter was around 29 degrees.

When it grows I let my minis onto the pasture slowly about a hour the first day and gradually work up on the time.

The longest they graze is about 2-3 hours a day. It will reseed itself every winter but we plant again to make it thick and lush.

Carlene

 

[Charlotte]

sassy1, that was very interesting on the Rye Grass Staggers. Endophyte in the grass is similar to the problems with Fescue over here...only symptoms are different. I haven't heard of any endophyte problems with Rye grass here in the U.S., just the problems with high nitrate levels under certain climate conditions.

Thank you for the link! Always something new to learn here on LB

:

Charlotte

 

[Lost Spoke Ranch]

This thread is turning out to be quite interesting and I’m learning quite a bit about Rye grass. Thanks so much Sassy1 for the article about Rye grass staggers (never heard of that) and it sounds very similar to what I’ve read about Fescue. Big thanks everyone for sharing your Rye grass experiences. I think others are finding this info helpful too!

Dawn :saludando:

 

[CharmedMinis]

I emailed Robin C a couple of weeks ago to ask her about feeding Rye as we are looking into some hay that has about 5% rye in it. Here is what she emailed me back, hope she doesn't mind me sharing.

I wish I could give you a good answer on this, but I can't really. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information available on the use of rye forage in horses. Cows seem to be able to tolerate it OK. Sometimes rye develops a fungus containing ergotamine and this can be detrimental to mares in foal, in particular. Unless you are familiar with the "look" of ergotamine contamination in the dried state, you would be hard-pressed to tell whether the hay has it. It looks blackish and kind of "smutty" looking in the live state. Some horses can tolerate a bit or ergotamine contamination without any problem, too -- go figure.

My vet will be here later today and I'm going to ask him about this ergotamine and see what his opinion is on feeding rye.