No till BMR Sorgum Sudan for summer forage ?

[Stocker Steve]

The convential wisdom MN is that the yield is better with plant silage corn this far north, but I am trying to prep in case the drought continues into 2013. I have convinced myself that a practical drought buffer is to take a grazing between snow sqauls in late May, spray out some low productivity bluegrass sod, put in BMR Sorgum Sudan for strip grazingin early June, and finally renovate the following year .

Have you been able to no still this successfully into sod, or would you recommend a good disking first ?

What no till seeding rate per acre did you use ?

 

[turklilley]

I plant a few acres each year. I have no-tilled it directly in sod. I put a 50 lb bag on per acre. Top dress it with 50 lbs nitrogen when 18" high

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I plant a few acres each year. I have no-tilled it directly in sod. I put a 50 lb bag on per acre. Top dress it with 50 lbs nitrogen when 18" high

x2
I mostly broadcast but either way try to keep it at 50# to the acre.
You might want look into planting Sudan grass instead of Sorghum-Sudan, makes a lot more tons per acre, and better grazing...more like grass less like sorghum. Last year pioneer ran out of sudan seed and I had to plant NK sorghum-sudan, headed out a lot sooner, and didn't last the drought as good. But this year already got my sudan seed, and now just need a good spring, God willing. ;-)

 

[Kingfisher]

They grow alot of Sudan here around Brownwood. It does good. It grows fast w a little water. They also call it " Red Top" which might not be what your speaking of.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Checked with my seed guy. He wanted over $2 per pound, so that is 2 x 50 = $100/acre for seed. Does that sound right?

 

[AllForage]

I don't have any suggestions as I plan on using this stuff for the first time this year hopefully, but this variety has caught my eye. Possibly less trampling and finer stems. Also would work for my sheep flock.

http://www.prairiecreekseed.com/sorghumsudan.php

Or this variety, has planting suggestions as well at the bottom of the page.

http://promaxbmr.com/

 

[turklilley]

I paid $65 per bag ( 50 lbs ) last year, I think it was Dekalb. I can't remember for sure. I thought that was plenty, but it makes a lot of high quality feed when the pastures are short. You know not to feed it until it is 30" high.

 

[shadyhollownj]

Burned existing hay fields last year with roundup and no-tilled two days later. I planted hayking sudangrass though. Got about 3.5 tons an acre with two cuttings in 90 days. Seed was 79.00 bucks for 50 lbs. Planted 30 lbs acre. First cutting was at 6 feet at 45 days and second was at 5 feet. Both cuttings were at before heading.

 

[fargus]

Steve, what soil type is it? If it's wetter ground Sorghum-Sudan is the way to go, on light sand you might want to check on some of the millets. 50 lbs/acre sounds like a lot, most guys here are sowing 20-25 lbs, if you're no-tilling I might bump it to 30-35. We've done the same thing, but worked the ground first. For pairs we let it get 8 - 9 feet tall and turned them into it in August, that held a lot of cattle. I suppose we could have strip-grazed it in July, and then again in late August and got more quality, but no complaints about carrying capacity.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Steve, what soil type is it? If it's wetter ground Sorghum-Sudan is the way to go, on light sand you might want to check on some of the millets. 50 lbs/acre sounds like a lot, most guys here are sowing 20-25 lbs, if you're no-tilling I might bump it to 30-35. We've done the same thing, but worked the ground first. For pairs we let it get 8 - 9 feet tall and turned them into it in August, that held a lot of cattle. I suppose we could have strip-grazed it in July, and then again in late August and got more quality, but no complaints about carrying capacity.

50 pounds is the only way to go. If you go with 30 pounds it gets way to stemmy, use to plant it like it says on the bag at 25 pounds, but boy you get some big stems. Had one about 2" around, and as hard as a cane pole, used it as a whip. :lol2:

 

[fargus]

I hear ya! We left 'em in there long enough that they ate the majority of those stems too, only left about 10% behind. I let the cows tell me if the feed is good enough, and they came out in good shape, and rebred while eating it. Just trying to get the same amount of feed for fewer dollars. If you graze or cut it earlier would it not get as stemmy? Try and run them through it 2-3 times instead of once?

 

[AllForage]

The strength of this crop is that it can be grazed multiple times. If once grazing is desired then corn should be grown in my opinion. 50 pounds will result in finer stems and better performance with more leaf.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I hear ya! We left 'em in there long enough that they ate the majority of those stems too, only left about 10% behind. I let the cows tell me if the feed is good enough, and they came out in good shape, and rebred while eating it. Just trying to get the same amount of feed for fewer dollars. If you graze or cut it earlier would it not get as stemmy? Try and run them through it 2-3 times instead of once?

Yea you would have to start on it pretty early, and quite often if you went with 25-30 pounds, but it seems like one day it's a foot tall and the next it's over head, and hat might just be in one spot. Seems to me when I switched to 50 pounds it all grow up at about the same rate, and lot more even in the field. You could grow it which ever way you feel or money allows, but I was giving my experience with it.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I don't have any suggestions as I plan on using this stuff for the first time this year hopefully, but this variety has caught my eye. Possibly less trampling and finer stems. Also would work for my sheep flock.

http://www.prairiecreekseed.com/sorghumsudan.php

Or this variety, has planting suggestions as well at the bottom of the page.

http://promaxbmr.com/

Thanks for the links. Are you considering planting sudan grass, or sorghum sudan ?

 

[AllForage]

I will probably go with the first link, sorghum/sudan bmr

 

[Lazy M]

I'm thinking of no tilling sudan on about the a 30 acre hayfield. The seed guy said that if I let the cows graze the sod down low, I shouldn't need to spray kill what's there. Any thoughts? I'd love to save the spray bill but don't want to sacrifice alot of yield. I hope to cut the sudan three times for hay and then graze it in the fall..

 

[southernblues]

Burned existing hay fields last year with roundup and no-tilled two days later. I planted hayking sudangrass though. Got about 3.5 tons an acre with two cuttings in 90 days. Seed was 79.00 bucks for 50 lbs. Planted 30 lbs acre. First cutting was at 6 feet at 45 days and second was at 5 feet. Both cuttings were at before heading.

How about fertilizer inputs, if any?

 

[shadyhollownj]

50-20-50 when seeded and after first cutting. Wanted to get down another 50n after it came up but grew like a weed and work schedule didnt work out.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I'm thinking of no tilling sudan on about the a 30 acre hayfield. The seed guy said that if I let the cows graze the sod down low, I shouldn't need to spray kill what's there. Any thoughts? I'd love to save the spray bill but don't want to sacrifice alot of yield.

Depends on what is in your hay field. I would spray here, partially because we have a lot of quackgrass and bluegrass that are not suppressed much my grazing.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Seed literature says harvest Sorgum Sudan in 45 days, or start grazing in 35 days. Seems really quick. Does it usually grow that fast?

Seed literature says SS only needs 1/3 the moisture that corn needs. How much rain to you need to get decent 2nd cutting regrowth?

Thinking about disking it in and replanting rye in the fall. What happens to SS growth in cool fall weather when lows are in the upper 30s and 40s?