italian ryegrass?

Pacoa

Has anyone experience with growing it? How early could you plant it, what does the seed cost and what kind of bale silage would it make?
Im thinking of renting land for next year but most of the land for rent around me is tillage land hence the reason for thinking of italian ryegrass. Just think it would be better to plant a short term crop than ordinary ryegrass as i feel at some point in the future grain price is gona shoot up and the tillage men will be paying crazy money for land again. I could be wrong.

Sam Kade

I used to grow it. It's more suited to cutting rather than grazing. The best yields are in the first year it dies out after 3 years. It can be surface seeded every year after the first year (to keep yields up) as it is easy to grow. The first cut of silage off it is excellent quaility later cuts aren't great as it tends to go to seed fast. You also need a lot of nitrogen for it but if you sow red clover with it you can cut back on the artifical nitrogen. You can sow it up to mid Sept or later depending on weather if you are sowing clover with it you would want it sown before mid August. The seed is cheaper than other grass seeds.