As we move into fall, most of our attention and thought is toward the upcoming harvest. While that certainly takes a lot of time and energy, many producers will also need to find opportunities for winter annual small grain planting. As much effort has gone into researching planting dates and seeding rates for our spring-planted crops, there hasn't been a similar effort put into understanding how planting dates affect our winter annuals. Historically, we have only worried about getting these crops planted immediately after the "fly free" date, which for Wayne County is Sept. 26.
The current recommendations are that winter annuals be planted within ten days of the area's fly-free date. However, we know that weather and harvest progress can keep that from happening. If weather forces planting outside of the ideal window, when does it become too late? Work from the USDA Jamie L. Whitten Plant Materials Center in Coffeeville, MS (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/mspmcsr14126.pdf), showed that ideal planting dates for many small grain forages ranged from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. In their work, seeding after the mid-October date resulted in a 1% reduction in forage yield for each day that planting was delayed.
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This year, several Ohio State University Extension projects focused on the effects of planting date on small grain forage yield. You will be able to review all of those projects when the 2026 OSU Extension eFields and eBarns reports are published later next month. I conducted one of the trials at the OSU CFAES Wooster Campus farms this year. The study compared three small grain forages (rye, triticale, barley) planted on five different dates in the fall of 2025 (Sept. 15, Sept. 29, Oct. 13, Oct. 27, and Nov. 6). Although this study will be replicated for the next two years, I would like to share the first year's findings with you.
It was no surprise that the earliest plantings provided the greatest percentage of ground cover by first frost (Nov. 19). There was no statistical difference between fall forage mass from the September seedings (64% for Sept. 15 vs 47% for Sept. 29). As planting was delayed to October or later, the percent ground cover was reduced regardless of species planted.
Although we saw a difference in fall forage mass, this difference did not impact spring forage yield. For the 2025/2026 growing season, yield was optimized at the mid-October planting for all species. There was no significant difference between earlier, or later planting across the species.
Only one variety of each species was used in this study, and we selected the variety that was most frequently purchased by area producers. All plots were harvested in the early boot growth stage. Triticale was the highest-yielding species (2,885 lbs./ac.), followed by barley (2,519 lbs./ac.) and rye (2,338 lbs./ac.). Triticale was consistently the highest-yielding at the three earliest planting dates, followed by barley. Triticale and barley had nearly identical yields for the October 13 planting date (3,642 lbs./ac. vs 3,602 lbs./ac.). Rye, on the other hand, outyielded the other species at the two latest planting dates.
Although there were statistically significant results, this is just a summary of one year of data. Based on one year of data, we can conclude that for this part of Ohio, we have some flexibility in planting date. Regardless of when you are able to get your fall crop planted, you should focus on the basic agronomic practices. The Ohio Agronomy Guide recommends that seeding rates be between 1.2 and 1.6 million seeds per acre, planted within three weeks of your fly-free date. Other research has identified that a fall application of 25 units of nitrogen will also promote fall tillering and promote spring yield. To review this study and our other planting date studies, check out our yearly eFields and eBarns reports at https://digitalag.osu.edu.
We are only one week away from the start of the Wayne County Fair. If you are on the grounds Saturday or Sunday, you will be able to find me in our booth shared with the Wayne Soil and Water Conservation District. Program-wise, there is the 2026 Farm Science Review from Sept. 22 to 24 in London, OH. And we have scheduled the 2026 Ag Lenders Seminar for October 20 at Secrest Arboretum Welcome Center.
I would also like to remind everyone of the emergency preparedness survey that we are conducting. The survey is for all Ohio agriculture producers, and we are seeking to get a better understanding of what they perceive as risks to human welfare and property on their operations. If you haven't completed the survey, you can access it at https://go.osu.edu/producer. If you have questions about this project or any other farm-related questions, you can contact me at 330-264-8722 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Learn how planting dates impact small grain yields