A new crop to the Irish market with strong potential for both whole crop silage and as a grain crop for specific end uses.

Rye is a relatively new crop to Ireland, with currently only approx. 3,500 hectares grown annually. New varieties have vastly improved in recent years and hybridisation has also brought more resilience to the crop.

The main attributes/benefits of hybrid rye as a crop are;

• High grain yield potential – equivalent to winter wheat (10 – 13t/ha)
• Flexible & spreads workload – Hybrid rye will mature in between barley and wheat. It can be harvested for whole-crop or for grain. Modern varieties will typically have 50 – 55% grain in total yield and fresh yields of 35 – 45t/ha (14 – 18tons/ac) @ 30 to 40% DM content.
• Less N input required – typically 150kg/ha will feed rye sufficiently
• High Straw Yield – crop grows to 6 feet tall but still has good lodging resistance. Straw quality is similar or slight inferior to oats (highly lignified).
• Very good drought tolerance – Hybrid Rye requires 25% less water than wheat or barley to fill the grains, makes the crop very suitable to light land and could be a saviour in dry years
• Good take-all tolerance; Rye is the second best cereal after oats as regards tolerance to take-all infection, which makes it a good choice in that second or third cereal slot in winter crop rotations.
• Very suitable for pig feed – rye has a higher lysine amino acid content than other cereals, and it promotes atiety in pigs and results in less digestive upsets.