Multi Purpose Hay crop

[mdt192]

Hello all,

I have a 12 acre field that is used in the winter and spring as a ryegrass / wheat pasture. I planted it last October, and it came in good. I never had the need or opportunity to graze it this year, so I will try and get it up for dry hay whenever it quits raining. It is black prairie gumbo dirt that takes forever to dry up.

On normal years, we graze it heavily, disc first chance we get in April, and plant our dove field of milo, brown top millet, and sunflowers. We have a big hunt the first weekend of dove season and maybe 2 or 3 little hunts after that.

My question: Is there a crop that would yield enough fair quality hay and good dove hunting to be worth it? I was specifically thinking of pearl millet? Anyone have experience trying this?


Thanks.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We are trying to replace SS mixes with pearl millet mixes. Usually graze it, and could make balage with it. Pearl millet has less tonnage but finer stems and higher utilization than SS. Both are basically a 1X annual in artic vortex areas.

Look at Byron Seeds if you want a forage comparison. They have great tech service.

 

[callmefence]

Pearl millet isn't going to leave much for the dove, pretty much nothing if you graze it.

 

[Texasmark]

Get yourself some $10/50# sacks of Milo at the feed store and have a ball. Doves absolutely LOVE Milo. plant it and leave it alone (to mature and head out) and enjoy your Dove season. Or graze it when young and then get your stock off in time for it to head out and mature for Dove season. Then whack it with a rotary cutter and after the Dove season is over, disc the residue into the soil for humus. Don't be surprised if you have a volunteer Milo crop the following year. :clap:

 

[mdt192]

Get yourself some $10/50# sacks of Milo at the feed store and have a ball. Doves absolutely LOVE Milo. plant it and leave it alone (to mature and head out) and enjoy your Dove season. Or graze it when young and then get your stock off in time for it to head out and mature for Dove season. Then whack it with a rotary cutter and after the Dove season is over, disc the residue into the soil for humus. Don't be surprised if you have a volunteer Milo crop the following year. :clap:

That is what we have been doing. Doves have been kind of hit or miss. Some years great, and it was all worth it. Other years so-so, and I would had rather had something worth cutting for hay. Last 2 years have been poor hunting over the milo for us, so that is why I was inquiring.

 

[callmefence]

Get yourself some $10/50# sacks of Milo at the feed store and have a ball. Doves absolutely LOVE Milo. plant it and leave it alone (to mature and head out) and enjoy your Dove season. Or graze it when young and then get your stock off in time for it to head out and mature for Dove season. Then whack it with a rotary cutter and after the Dove season is over, disc the residue into the soil for humus. Don't be surprised if you have a volunteer Milo crop the following year. :clap:

That is what we have been doing. Doves have been kind of hit or miss. Some years great, and it was all worth it. Other years so-so, and I would had rather had something worth cutting for hay. Last 2 years have been poor hunting over the milo for us, so that is why I was inquiring.

Milo makes nice hay as long as you take it before it gets a thick stalk. Not the greatest yields. Why not just drill you a strip or two in cheap Milo and sunflowers and plant the rest in haygrazer.

 

[Texasmark]

Get yourself some $10/50# sacks of Milo at the feed store and have a ball. Doves absolutely LOVE Milo. plant it and leave it alone (to mature and head out) and enjoy your Dove season. Or graze it when young and then get your stock off in time for it to head out and mature for Dove season. Then whack it with a rotary cutter and after the Dove season is over, disc the residue into the soil for humus. Don't be surprised if you have a volunteer Milo crop the following year. :clap:

That is what we have been doing. Doves have been kind of hit or miss. Some years great, and it was all worth it. Other years so-so, and I would had rather had something worth cutting for hay. Last 2 years have been poor hunting over the milo for us, so that is why I was inquiring.

Milo makes nice hay as long as you take it before it gets a thick stalk. Not the greatest yields. Why not just drill you a strip or two in cheap Milo and sunflowers and plant the rest in haygrazer.

Agree and let the haygrazer head out when finished haying and that will attract your doves just as well as SS and Milo are both in the Sorghum family. On dove migration, same thing here. They come in with the first good cold front in the fall for the first wave and subsequent fronts later on. Some years we have doves everywhere, some years hardly any. We had a bad drought several years ago for several years and it totally changed the migration habits of dove, ducks, geese humming birds, blue jays and butterflies. Hasn't recovered.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Waterfowl migration has shifted here, going west following corn cultivation.