Annual Ryegrass for Winter Grazing: Diploid vs. Tetraploid Varieties

0:05 All right. So, here we have a plot of Centurion annual ryegrass. This would be a diploid. This was October 10th planted. And here we are in early June at kind of looking at the plot. So, when you're looking at annual ryegrasses, they all

0:18 Fall into two categories. You have diploid and tetraploid annual ryegrass varieties. Your diploids are more winter hardy. So, here in South Central Nebraska, the diploids are the ones that have a chance to overwinter.

0:28 This plot did fairly well this year. Yeah, we typically here in Nebraska wouldn't expect annual ryegrass to overwinter this well. We had a relatively mild winter except for a short stretch, but we had a little bit

0:40 Of snow cover. So annual ryegrass is not as winter hardy as cereal rye, but when it's planted early enough and it gets established, it does have the ability to overwinter. Even here, we're in zone 5B here in Nebraska. Certainly.

0:56 As you move south it is obviously much easier to overwinter and as you move east it's easier to get it established sooner because a lot of people will fly annual rye grass into standing corn or standing soybeans. Now one thing

1:10 About annual ryegrass, it doesn't get nearly as tall. So this is probably 3 ft tall, not nearly as tall as cereal rye. However the root system can be equally as deep. Now, obviously, I didn't pull up the entire root system.

1:24 Here, but my guess is that the fine fibrous roots of this annual rye grass are probably going down 3 to four feet deep. So it has a similar root system to cereal rye, which makes it a great cover crop. But it can lead to

1:52 Information out there about how to do that. You're not going to kill this with a crimper because these stems aren't nearly as hollow as what rye cereal rye or trudicle. So it's going to be difficult to terminate it with a.

2:06 With a crimper. So, you're probably either looking at tillage or chemicals if you're going to terminate this.

2:12 Yep. Great forage value before it heads out. You know, now that the heads are

2:15 Out, it the forge values dropped as it's filling those seeds out. But really high quality forage, like you said, termination concerns to consider. But an advantage compared to like serial R is that lower seeding rate.

2:27 When you're talking about flying on covers, you know, full stand, we're looking at 20–25 pounds per acre, maybe a little bit more if you're broadcasting, so a lot lower rates per acre. So it has some good advantage. So if you're further south or further east than we are here in Nebraska, this can be a really good fit. Or if you've got some water or earlier planting opportunities, annual ryegrass is a great one to consider.