Trying to decide between planting wheat, cereal rye, or triticale for early-spring forage? Consider the characteristics of each when selecting the right one for your operation and management.

EARLIEST GRAZING: If you're looking for the forage to provide you with the earliest grazing possible, cereal rye is the best choice. Because it's an early crop, it also may be a good option for double cropping.

Rye best for early grazing
Cereal rye is the best choice if you're looking for the earliest grazing possible. Because it's early, it also may be the best match for double cropping. Some varieties provide quite a bit of fall growth, too, if planted early. Rye also may be the most reliable when planted under stressful conditions, but it does have some drawbacks. It turns stemmy and matures much earlier than wheat or triticale, losing feed value and palatability earlier in the spring. Plus, wheat grain producers don't want it contaminating fields next year.

For hay, silage later in spring
Triticale holds on to its feed value best into late spring. This makes it well suited for hay and silage, or for stretching grazing well into June if you don't mind starting two or three weeks later compared to rye. However, triticale tends to be a bit more susceptible to winter injury.

Grazing and grain production
Winter wheat has been the small grain of choice for winter and spring grazing in the Southern Plains, where higher winter temperatures allow growth to continue, although slowly. In the Northern Plains, including Nebraska, wheat goes dormant over winter, and its carrying capacity is not as high as triticale or rye. Wheat offers the best quality of the three for grazing before stems develop and is the clear choice if you want the double use of early pasture and then grain production.

So there it is: rye for early pasture; triticale for hay, silage or later grazing; and wheat for grazing plus grain. You may have other factors affecting your choice, but in general, these guidelines work well.

Anderson is a University of Nebraska Extension forage specialist.