Seed costs are about 60 cents a pound and require 25 pounds of seed per acre. Since ryegrass responds well to nitrogen, growers who skimp on fertilizer can not expect to get comparable yields. Annual ryegrass can provide a couple of crops per year. It can be seeded and fertilized with 50 pounds of nitrogen in the fall. After that is grazed down, the crop can be fertilized again with 50 to 75 pounds of nitrogen and provide another two tons of grazing in late February and March, when cows need spring grass.
Annual ryegrass works well for grain farmers with beef cow herds.
The grass can be seeded in September on grain-stubble to provide winter grazing. The best thing about ryegrass is that it provides grazing through the critical winter months. The most common practice used in Missouri for extending fall and winter grazing is stockpiling tall fescue pastures. Stockpiling is the more commonly used term for what is often referred to as deferred grazing in textbooks. The basic practice is to remove animals from a particular pasture, harvest hay in mid to late summer and allow the growth to accumulate until after the growing season has ended.