????Life cycle of "Winter Rye"????

[czvz]

I am a Nube when it comes to farming/foodplots. My second attempt was succesful and I have about 2.5 acres of thick lush Rye.  I am wondering, what happens next spring?  Will the Rye plant survive a Minnesota winter?  If it does, should I let it grow, or should I spray with herbicide and plant new seed in the Fall?  Do Whitetails like the mature Rye grass or do they prefer it when its young.  I planted the second week of August and right now the grasses are about 6 inches tall.... the deer seem to like it now.
Thanx CZVZ

[BUGEYE]

I used to plant rye when I had horses.  it stayed short and tender all winter but when warm weather started, it grew quickly and got too tough for pasture.  I just plowed it under for green manure and planted alfalfa for hay.
it was interesting to me that the horses would graze on it and then go back to the barn and eat some coarse hay.  my farrier said they had trouble digesting it without some roughage.

[Drilling Man]

  Rye is so easy to grow, the seed would germinate where it landed on my tractor after planting it!
 
  I use to plant rye in the late summer, it made good food plots for deer and turkeys.  Deer would dig down through the snow and eat it in the winter, then in the spring it would grow up tall.  When the heads just started into the "milk stage", i'd cut/bale it for horse hay.  One customer had it analized for horse hay, and it came back as very good horse hay...
 
  You can rotary cut (brush hog) it in the summer, till it under and replant it, or till it down in the late spring for grn manure and plant something else?  It's an annual, so it will mature and die in the following summer, and deer/turkeys don't want mature rye anyway....
 
  DM