Rye is becoming more popular. The area of the crop grew by around 1,000ha in 2025 from 2,664ha to 3,717ha.

It offers a number of advantages, one of those being early sowing.

Rye can be drilled from 15 September and, at the other end of the season, it can be left ripe if needed while other crops are harvested, with little impact on yield or grain quality.

It boasts the reputation of having the yield of winter wheat and the crop inputs of winter barley. However, you must be sure you have an end market for the crop and check that whoever sells you the seed will buy your grain.

A number of merchants are happy to take it into their feed mill, as it provides another crop for farmers to grow and may come with a little less risk at present.

Things to note on rye are that while it can be sown early, it does not do as well when planted late. Slugs like the crop and some fields have been taken out with slugs, including last season, so this is something that requires vigilance.

However, it is at a lower risk of disease and barley yellow dwarf virus than barley or wheat and ergot risks, which the crop was famous for in the past, have been significantly reduced.

Ergot

Many readers will have noticed rye’s distinctive look in the fields. The plants are growing at different heights and this is not by accident.

Goldcrop’s John Dunne explained that with the Staten Union varieties, 10% of the seed are earlier to flower and shower the remaining 90% of the crop with pollen to reduce ergot risk.

Ergot infection occurs in wet and damp weather. When the florets are open for pollination, they can become infected, but the pollen from the taller plants is an attempt to prevent this.

John encouraged growers to use 150 units/ac of nitrogen (N) on rye. He noted while it has a lower N requirement to winter wheat, some growers are probably going too low at 130 units/acre.

Varieties

Varieties available this season include KWS Tayo, KWS Igor, SU Baresi and SU Karlsson. Goldcrop claims SU Karlsson is less prone to slug attacks as it is not as palatable.

In next week's Irish Farmers Journal, we will have a varieties Focus featuring all the latest from the variety open days, seed availability and what varieties to look out for.