Planting Winter Ryegrass in the Pasture

The first cool weather of October is always a signal for me to get rye grass planted for the cows.  Now, we haven't been successful in getting a decent stand of ryegrass since I began seeding one third of our pasture with ryegrass seed, but I'm not a quitter and I'll keep trying until we have success.  In the past, I've cut the grass real short, seed the acre paddock, drag a post across the planted area to make the seeds get down to the ground and wait for germination.

Trouble is, I've always had a sparse stand.  I wanted to learn what others were doing, so I asked around and got another method.  This method involves the same steps, but in a different order, so I'm going to try it.  I'll seed the acre paddock first, then I'll mow the grass.  This will allow the grass cuttings to cover the seed and after a rain, the seed will work its way down to the ground and will pop up through the grass cuttings.  The cuttings will protect the seed, somewhat from predation from birds and our chickens.

Before we got started, though, I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate a quick, easy Home School lesson for Benjamin to show him how math has some very practical uses.  We needed to measure out an acre in our pasture.  I had Benjamin research to find the number of square feet in an acre.  When he determined that there were 43,560 square feet in an acre, we showed how the equation 'x' times 'y' = 43,560. We needed to eliminate one of the variables so he measured from post to post along the road and determined that it was 224 feet wide.  Now he needed to determined how far deep we needed to walk back to set our temporary fence to enclose one acre.  All he needed to do at this point was divide 43,560 by 224 to determine that he needed to mark off 194.5 feet back for the fence to create a one acre rye grass paddock.  Not only did we learn the answer to our question, but we reinforced the fact that math has practical uses in everyday life.

Here is the one acre paddock measured out of our little pasture:

Where the rye grass will (hopefully) grow

I purchased a 50 pound bag of ryegrass at the hardware store and pulled out my little spreader.  Yes, there are easier ways to plant rye grass, but I like a little exercise after sitting in an office all day!  I simply filled the little hopper with ryegrass seed, put the setting on the appropriate setting, and we're ready to start planting.

The seeder and the seed

Ryegrass seed is very small and very light.

Ryegrass Seed

The seed falls through the opening at the bottom of the hopper and falls on a spinning plate at the bottom of the spreader that broadcasts the seeds evenly across the pasture.  I walked back and forth in straight swaths.  I could see where my previous path was due to the marks in the grass left by the wheels.  The best time to do this is in the morning while the dew is on the ground so that your wheels leave marks in the wet grass.  I planted in the evening but was still able to see the marks in the grass to gauge where my next swath would be.

According to something I read ryegrass seed will take between 5 and 10 days to germinate.  It has been dry around here so I would assume it will take a little longer. Hopefully we'll have success this year with ryegrass.  I will always have our Plan B in the event we are unsuccessful and will have plenty of hay for the girls to fall back on.  We'll keep you posted on the ryegrass progress and whether or not we get a successful stand.