COMMON RYE  (Secale cereale L.)

Seeds

Importance and grain composition:

Rye contains only about 9% crude protein, mostly reserve proteins gliadin (prolamine) and glutelines. The main nutrient in the rye grain is starch, but there are also polysaccharides – xylans and arabinoxylans in the form of rye slimes. Crude fibre makes up 2%, fat 1.4 % and mineral substances about 1.8%.

Rye is used for the production of foodstuffs and feedstuffs, and technical and pharmaceutical purposes. In the food industry, rye is used for the production of some kinds of bread, spirit and coffee substitutes. In Canada and the U.S.A. rye whiskey is made.

For animal feeding, rye is used only to a limited extent since it has a lower nutritional value, bitter taste, unfavourable dietetic properties and contains antinutritional substances such as protease inhibitors and alkylresorcinol that probably do not influence the nutritional value of rye, and antinutritional polysaccharides - arabinoxylans. The latter ones increase intestinal content viscosity, thereby slowing down the mobility of substrates, digestive enzymes and emulsifying bile acids. The also compromise the contact of nutrients with the intestinal mucosa. Utilization of all the nutrients is decreased, this effect is the most pronounced in fats and liposoluble vitamins. Therefore the feeding of rye grains can lead to decreased performance in livestock. It is more common to feed green rye to animals early in the spring. For this purpose, mainly varieties with high yield of green forage and slow maturation (slower lignification) are used.

Rye is used also in pharmacology to obtain ergot alkaloids from stands that are artificially infected with ergot (ergot fungus).

 Cultivation requirements:

In the world there are both in winter and spring forms of rye, in this country only the winter form is grown. Rye tolerates light sandy soils with acidic reaction. It can also be grown on poorer soils because its root system is well developed. It is not demanding for warm temperatures. Winter rye is the most resistant against low temperatures from all the winter crops.

Because it can tolerate unfavourable conditions, rye is often grown after other cereals. In comparison with other cereals it has better health and higher competitiveness against weeds. It is often grown after potatoes, too.