Sorghum Sudan Selection & Grazing ?

[Stocker Steve]

Cross fenced my first SS yesterday. It is a another of my farmer experiments - - part of the field is dwarf BMR and part of it is standard stuff. It has been cold and the SS did not look good, but I had to go back and get the pick up to make a path for the electric fence. Dwarf BMR is knee to hip high and light green. Standard is really dense shoulder to head high and dark green with burned brown tips. Also drove over a skunk while on the SS safari and the wife loved that...

- Since I don't care if the SS lodges before I graze it, is there any reason to grow the dwarf variety? I have heard dwarf tillers more and you can cut back on the seeding rate but I have not noticed that.
- What is with the burned brown tips?
- Would a grazer be better off just skipping the sorghum and putting in straight Sudan grass?

 

[sim.-ang.king]

The light color and burned tips is from low nitrogen. I'm having the same problem with mine because all of this rain has been leaching out a lot of the nitrogen.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The light color and burned tips is from low nitrogen. I'm having the same problem with mine because all of this rain has been leaching out a lot of the nitrogen.

How much time do you need to top dress and then get a second crop?

 

[sim.-ang.king]

The light color and burned tips is from low nitrogen. I'm having the same problem with mine because all of this rain has been leaching out a lot of the nitrogen.

How much time do you need to top dress and then get a second crop?

I was planning on top dressing about 2 weeks before cutting, with urea, if there is going to be some rain on the way. If you spray on liquid it will set it back a couple days so you may need longer than spreading urea.