Rye grass Good or Bad?
 

I am from upstate NY. Its my first time planting a food plot. I used plot spike quick stand no-till forage, Throw & Grow Extreme forage mixture, And winterpz wildlife mixture. The plot spike says it has RYE GRASS, PRINE TETRAPLOID 87%. And the throw & Grow says 82% MAXIMUS TETRAPLOID ANNUAL RYE GRASS. After planting I see a lot of guys saying not to plant any rye grass! saying the deer don't like it and it takes over food plots? What's your guys opinion on these 2 rye grasses?

Hunted down in Texas several years back and they had a mixture of rye & oats and the deer seemed to like it. This was on a Weyhauser tree plantation with an on staff biologist. Based on that I would say the rye is fine but don't have any followup experience.

There is rye grass and there is winter rye. Winter rye is grain rye: Deer love the stuff. This year i will plant winter rye food plots five different locations. Winter rye is very cold hardy and drought tolerant. It will grow and thrive in a variety of soils.

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The rye grass in your plot mix is a perennial - it is a grass. Winter rye is an annual grain - you plant in fall, it comes up green with foot high blades similar to lawn grass. Then in spring it continues to grow up to 3 ft and yields its grain, and dies. Deer love the Winter Rye - the downfall is you must replant each year. Winter rye stays green even under the snow, so in late fall it is the only green thing around.

Ryegrass is easy to grow and many of the products you listed are mostly ryegrass. I saw one at Gander Mtn that was 95% ryegrass. It's cheap and that's why they fill the bags with it. Another grass that creates a green field not a food plot. Read the label and if it has more than about 25-30% ryegrass in the product, keep looking. Last time I priced ryegrass was a few years ago and it was $.40 per pound.

I've been told the trick to regular old Rye is it needs to be mowed, like twice a year. Don't let it grow tall enough to seed. Horses will eat it ruminates can't or won't. Keeping it young is the trick.

When it grows too tall, the farmers around here will mulch it and won't gather it for silage.