Re: rye grass

["Kim Pelletier" <kim@redhorsetech.com>]

Hi Maggie,

 

I'm going to assume your client is looking at ryegrass, and not rye (grain) for planting in pasture. 

 

Ryegrass is a good pasture grass for cool season areas; I've grazed cattle and horses on Italian Ryegrass with no problems except for excessive weight gains in the more idle horses :-).  Italian ryegrass (and probably others, such as annual) are used a lot of times to provide quick ground cover for burn areas and such... it will take hold and grow quickly when enough water is available.

 

However, it probably should not be used for horses prone to laminitis.  Most ryegrass contains higher concentrations of water soluble carbohydrates (fructans, sucrose, glucose, and fructose) compared to other forages, such as timothy. 

 

In spring in the US, the growing season tends to be the time of year when the water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) concentration is the highest.  The sunny days encourage plant growth (and use of stored WSC as a source of "sugar" energy).  But, the colder nights and mornings, and more importantly, "shorter" daylight hours, slows the rate of growth to almost nothing.  During the dark of night, water soluble carbohydrates will be stored in the young plant instead of used for growth.  You can think of high concentrations of stored WSC as grain in a sense, if you want to relate how laminitis develops with soluble carbohydrate overload.  So, the times that can be the most dangerous for grazing ryegrass would be during the spring and autumn months.

 

There are strains of ryegrass specifically bred for low water soluble carbohydrate concentration, but I am not sure of their availability in the US.  Mostly heard that this type of low WSC ryegrass is being used in some areas of Australia.

 

Another thing to consider with ryegrass is "grass staggers", which is caused by neurotoxins from the mold, _Acremonium lolii_, which prefers to happily live in annual and perennial ryegrass.  This mold tends to stay in the lowest portion of the grass stalk, so you can reduce the risk quite a bit by simply preventing the ryegrass pasture from being overgrazed.

 

Aside from the laminitis and mold issues, ryegrass is a pretty nice pasture forage both in maintenance and nutritionally.  It doesn't handle constant trampling as well as other grasses such as burmudagrass and hates heat, but does have a good growth rate if your weather is favorable (a bit on the cool side) compared to other forages. 

 

 

Hope it helps,

 

Kim  (and 'Lee, the QH mutt)

 

Red Horse Technologies, Inc.

Lubbock, TX

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Mieske

To: ridecamp@endurance.net

Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 6:53 PM

Subject: RC: rye grass

One of our clients asked us about planting rye in his new pastures (old crop fields) in an attempt to provide ground cover, prevent erosion, etc.  He has a bunch of it and would like to use it up.  He was wondering if it would be a problem for horses to eat the new rye grass in the spring.  Anyone know anything about that?  Thanks!!

Maggie Mieske
McBain, Michigan