Rye is a prominent cover crop species. Its broad adaptability across diverse environmental conditions, coupled with its winter hardiness, erosion control, and positive impacts on soil health contribute to its widespread adoption. Rye’s ability to generate substantial biomass early in the spring facilitates its use as a forage resource and allows for timely subsequent cash crop planting following termination. Whether implemented through grazing, mechanical crimping, or direct harvesting, rye can be effectively managed to achieve producer-specific objectives.
Several aspects of a rye production system should be considered to maximize overall success for harvesting the biomass.
Season
Rye is typically harvested for forage or biomass in May. The harvesting window each spring will vary according to weather conditions. Yield varies depending on what stage the rye is harvested. Livestock and feedstock producers will have to balance between maximizing nutritional quality for their needs and maximizing rye yield when harvesting. Both factors can have tradeoffs that will vary in each producer’s situation, which will be unique to their operation and needs.
Harvest timing may also depend on whether having the harvest custom hired or having your own equipment to harvest. Custom harvesting businesses may want to start harvesting some fields earlier to cover more acres and harvest more tons of biomass over the season. This could result in a lower overall yield per acre from limiting the growth window for the rye in earlier harvested fields. If you have your own equipment, you can be more particular about when you harvest to generate the greatest economic return for an operation.
Drying and Seasonal Weather Factors
In the upper Midwest it will be unlikely that rye will have enough harvestable biomass until May. Generally colder springtime conditions will slow early growth of rye. Warmer springtime conditions promote quicker development. This variability leaves uncertainty in establishing the cash crop without significant yield penalty. The primary objective with a rye harvest should be to leave the field in a condition suitable for planting with minimal additional preparation required prior to termination of the rye and subsequent cash crop establishment.
Green cut rye will be high in moisture. Given the short windows of weather for drying and the expedited order of operations required to plant the cash crop in a timely manner, windrow drying is not a viable possibility in most situations. Drying takes multiple days and more mature rye will be ready first. Trying to dry the rye will also likely take multiple tedding or turning passes across the field to limit degradation of the quality of the feedstock through heating or mold. Choosing to ensile the rye will expedite the rye removal from the field. A field with rye ensiled could be planted to a cash crop within 24-72 hours of cutting the rye.
Labor
Labor availability is also a consideration on how to harvest the rye. Labor for most operations during the springtime is generally limited by other competing spring field operations. Baling offers the advantage of distributing labor requirements by only requiring one operator per baler, mitigating the need for concentrated manpower during peak harvest periods as required for forage harvesting. This approach facilitates collaborative arrangements where multiple entities can contribute to specific steps within the harvesting process. For instance, an individual operator may specialize in windrowing, another may focus on baling, and the collaborative group may help with bale wrapping at a designated location. Being able to distribute labor over several field operations could allow an operator to remain in the planter following the balers as they harvested fields.
Harvesting Opportunities
A successful supply chain will have various entry points in which individuals could participate to fit their needs and budgets. Some producers may have the equipment and time already available to harvest their own crops. This may not optimize the logistics or labor aspects of their supply chain, but it will allow the producer to control the timeline of planting the cash crop. Other producers will choose to allow other operators to custom harvest their fields. A business focused on harvesting rye in the spring could harvest several thousand dry tons per season while an individual harvesting their own could do a few hundred tons. An individual producer may own the mower and windrower and hire aggregation and ensiling done on a custom basis or choose to have one of each piece of equipment. The custom harvester may have multiples of each equipment to optimize logistics and labor for harvesting thousands of acres of rye.
End Use
Consider all aspects of a feedstock supply chain when selecting equipment to use. For example, if the end use of the feedstock is to simply feed a group of cows, producers may want to bale the material. If supplying an end user, they may require further processing of the feedstock for conversion in their process. In that case the best practice may be to chop the feedstock and put it into a silage pile. The end user may pay for further processing at the storage site before delivery. It’s best to consider the whole supply chain and evaluate areas that can provide economic incentives for participants. If an area of the supply chain does not provide enough incentive for participation, then evaluate whether to hire that part out and focus on the others.
Cost
Harvesting costs vary depending upon equipment needs and operation size. A smaller scale producer that can spread capital cost for harvesting, storage, and transport equipment over several entities will realize cost efficiencies through diversification. Larger scale harvesters will be able to distribute costs over the sheer volume of material harvested. In general harvesting cost to deliver a product to an end user will cost around $80 per ton. The major factors in the aggregate cost of feedstock harvesting, storage, and transportation include:
| Operation | Cost |
|---|---|
| Mowing/Windowing | $10.50 |
| Bailing | $21 |
| Forage Harvesting | $20 |
| Transportation | $16 |
| Storage | $20 |
| Margin Type | % Margin |
|---|---|
| Sole Operator Margin | 10 |
| Business Margin | 20 |
| Profit Margin | 10 |
Additionally, beyond the operational costs for the supply chain there will be additional administrative costs and margin that will need to be factored in. These rates will vary from business to business. A custom harvesting business with support staff and overhead costs may require upward of 20% margin to offset the additional cost the personnel would take. In addition to those costs, custom harvesters will need to factor a profit margin into the cost structure. Individual operators probably won’t require the administrative margin and may settle for less profit margin especially if they are selling the feedstock into a commercial biorefinery for conversion. In that case they would have some additional margin from sale of the feed stock and then a chance for improved yields from the timely planting of the cash crop.