Recently, there has been a growing tendency to use whole crop rice for feeds as there is an increased rice supply and a decrease in the demand for rice in Korea. Little information, however, is available about the management and utilization of whole crop rice for feeds. This study was conducted to decide the optimum harvest date through examining the plant height, dry matter(DM) yield and feed composition of whole crop rice harvested at different maturity. Field study was established early in May until October 7th on a rice field at Yupori, Sinbuk-yeup, Chunchon, Kangwon-Do. "Ilpum" mutant rice was sown at 52 kg/ha, and N, P and K were applied at 209, 113 and 81 kg/ha, respectively. The rice was harvested at six different mature stages for analysis; booting stage; 17 Aug., milk-ripe stage; 27 Aug., dough stage; 7 Sep., yellow ripe stage; 17 Sep., dead ripe stage; 27 Sep. and full ripe stage; 7 Oct. Plant height was 77 cm in booting stage (P<0.05) which was lower when compared to the other stages among which the heights did not differ with average range of 93∼97 cm. The highest dry matter yield was observed in yellow ripe stage (22.8 T/ha), which was followed by dead ripe stage (19.3 T/ha), full ripe stage (19.3 T/ha), and dough stage (15.1 T/ha). Crude protein (CP) and Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) concentrations consistently decreased with maturity. The highest concentrations of CP and NDF were obtained in booting stage with 9 and 73.6%, respectively (P<0.05), and lowest in full ripe stage with 5.8 and 64.6%, respectively (P<0.05). The concentration of total digestible nutrient (TDN) was highest in booting stage (59.7%); however no significant difference was found among other stages. The concentrations of Ca and P were not different among mature stages. According to these results, the yellow ripe period is appropriate to harvest the whole crop rice for forage considering dry matter yields, feed compositions and TDN concentrations.