Steve,

I’m not a fan of rye grain or rye grass. Both tend to mature quickly and deer don’t / aren’t attracted to mature rye.  Rye does a good job of scavenging nitrogen from the soil and producing lots of biomass. The biomass, if managed correctly can help build soil.  However, forage wheat does almost as good of job in these categories and doesn’t mature near as rapidly.  

There are several grass-specific herbicides that can be used to control rye (Poast, clethodim, etc.) or simply use glyphosate then the clover is dormant.  It may require several treatments as rye is a good seed producer and the seeds tend to remain viable for years.  This means the current crop and subsequent volunteer crops may have to be terminated

A very good option is to plant Roundup Ready forage soybeans for a year to clean up the rye and provide quality forage.  Then clover can be seeding on top the soybeans as there will be a weed-free seedbed below the beans.

Enjoy creation,

grant

January 2, 2016