Role of Rye in Wales

Jamie McCoy - South Wales Dairy Technical Officer

A project looking at the role of Rye in Wales is starting on a focus site in Langors, Brecon. Farmer Alun Thomas and his son Tudor were looking for an alternative to growing Triticale, which they have grown in recent years as part of their cereal rotation. Their agronomist advised that Triticiale was becoming more vulnerable to disease, particularly rusts and suggested trying to grow Rye.

Rye is not commonly grown in the UK and it’s performance in terms of establishment, inputs and yield is unknown, although anecdotally one Welsh farmer has reported success with the crop in recent years.  In Australia, where rye is commonly grown it is claimed that rye is a more resilient cereal, tolerating standing in water for periods, and also dealing well with periods of drought – it is also successfully used as a green manure to help avoid soil and nutrient loss throughout winter. The Farming Connect project will record the farmer’s experience of growing the crop for the first time, along with fully costing all inputs to calculate the cost of producing the crop. 

Yields will be analysed and the feed quality of the grain and straw will be benchmarked with other cereals grown on the farm. Incorporating rye into the livestock ration will be explored post harvest, and livestock performance from the grain will be measured, to evaluate how well the rye performs as a grain in a Welsh livestock system. Look out for updates throughout 2017.

Alun is pleased with how the crop has established to date, and although one small area (a slight depression) of the field has experienced some slug damage, this will be rectified using pellets and no long term damage to the crop is foreseen. The plants look healthy and appear to be thriving in the Welsh environment so far.