By Gregory W. Roth
The interest in rye for distilleries continues to grow and so our research work will continue to develop to help producers and processors with improved information.
We continued our evaluation of the Brasetto hybrid rye and Danko, a grain type rye, this year for this purpose. This year we added the evaluation of a fungicide treatment at heading. We planted our trial at the same time as our wheat variety trial on October 12, and used a seeding rate of 1.0 million for the Brasetto and 1.5 million for the Danko. We applied 100lb of N on March 11 and then on the fungicide treatments we applied Caramba at flowering on May 18.
Leaf disease was relatively low in these plots but there was some fusarium head blight in the control plots. Rye has very small flag leaves compared to wheat and the long peduncle also contributes to the grain fill. Conditions were excellent for both wheat and rye growth. Our yields of Brasetto were 126 bu/a without the fungicide and 138 bu/a with the fungicide. For Danko, yields increased from 103 to 114 bu/a with the fungicide. These yields are similar to some of the top wheat yields in the adjacent trial. These yields are very high and from the best parts of our field but I have had several reports of production fields averaging 85 to 90 bushels per acre. In a strip test at the end of our field, Brasetto averaged 91 bu/a without the fungicide.
DON was reduced with fungicide application for both varieties. Falling numbers, a measure of preharvest sprouting, were high in all treatments, averaging about 330 seconds.
The grain analyses were conducted by The University of Vermont Cereal Grain Testing Laboratory. A table of the results of the rye trial from this year is located here.
The conclusion of these studies is that the hybrid rye Brasetto has high yield potential at lower seeding rates, when planted early in the fall and fertilized similar to winter wheat. Danko also has higher yield potential than our typical VNS cover crop ryes. To optimize yield and quality early planting is essential. The conclusion again is that based on this and previous studies, both the hybrids and the Danko variety appear to have much greater grain yield potential than some of the common rye varieties we use for cover cropping. Triazole fungicides may be one way to reduce the risk of vomitoxin in rye, which can occur. Be sure to check the label as not all fungicides have a label for rye. These results also suggest that when harvested on a timely basis local rye can produce a grain with good falling numbers for flour production.
The Brasetto hybrid is marketed by Seedway and requires an agreement that the grain will not be used for seed. Danko is also available from Seedway but might be available from other sources as well.