Sorgum-Sudan
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Caustic Burno
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MikeC":1p9dvwe3 said:
I added an additional 38 pounds to the acre.
Arnold Ziffle
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Just wondering if any of you (or anybody you know) does any brown bagging of millet, sorghum or other seeds --- legally of course. :lol:
If so, are there any particular storage, innoculation, etc. things to consider?
MikeC or anybody else -- Do you know how long Tifleaf III pearl millet has been around?
I assume the folks from Tifton practice patent protection with about the same zeal as Monsanto and others, right?
I think the usual plant patent period runs for 20 years but I don't have any idea if at the end of that time it's really "open season" for brown bagging or not -- thought one of you might know.
If so, are there any particular storage, innoculation, etc. things to consider?
MikeC or anybody else -- Do you know how long Tifleaf III pearl millet has been around?
I assume the folks from Tifton practice patent protection with about the same zeal as Monsanto and others, right?
I think the usual plant patent period runs for 20 years but I don't have any idea if at the end of that time it's really "open season" for brown bagging or not -- thought one of you might know.
Arnold Ziffle":349trvik said:
Tifleaf III is a hybrid.Wouldn't do any good to save that would it?
Pearl Millet itself has been around forever. I think it was used as a crop to make flour, way back before my time! :lol: :lol:
Herefordcross
Well-known member
We drilled this into existing grass that is pretty thin because it was so dry here for a while, planted one day hit it with 100lbs. nitrogen to the acre the next. Didn't want a thick stand but, that's what I'm getting it looks like. Different soils different parts of the country, I have never used the stuff until now and so I followed the bag plus a few pounds I guess. Seed guy told me to hit it with 50lbs nitro after it is up about six inches?? Price of nitrogen it's hard to do even on just a few acres because I know I still have my winter fertilizing to do.
cowtrek
Well-known member
It's probably better that you planted a little thick. Thicker stand= finer stems and usually more leaves, especially with a good dose of fertilizer. I wouldn't go crazy with the N-- sorghum/sudan can do surprisingly well with little or no additional fertilizer. Millet is kissing cousins to sorgo/sudan so I'd expect it to respond similarly. The more N you put the taller it's gonna want to get, and you don't really want the stems. Stemmy= lower quality and harder to dry out for baling. The feed value is in the leaves and the stems just hold you back waiting for them to dry out enough to bale while the leaves sunburn and dry out.
Some guys here grow grazer and let it get ten feet tall before they cut it. Sure you get more tonnage but the quality suffers bigtime. A neighbor of mine that my Grandpa used to bale for had the secret to prime grazer hay. Plant it thick and when it gets waist high, cut it. Grazer produces most of it's leaves by that stage of growth, from waist high to 8-10 feet high is just stem elongation and stem thickening (harder to dry) and the leaves are getting older and less digestible. At waist high the stems should be about the diameter of a pencil or so, so they'll dry a lot faster. The leaves are younger and more tender too. When he got my Grandpa to come cut it that way the first time, Grandpa thought he was nuts. BUT when he saw the finished hay, he told him that was the best looking haygrazer he'd ever seen! Plus, by not waiting a couple extra weeks for it to get 8 feet tall, you should get an extra cut out of it with any luck and make up the tonnage difference anyway. And not having to leave it laying on the field a week waiting for stems to dry while the leaves cook in the sun (or worse yet it gets soaked by rain) means the quality and feed value will be a LOT higher than baling cane poles. PLUS, I've seen a lot of bales of grazer that was cut at 8-10 feet, and round bales of that stuff need to be fed that coming winter. It just won't store much longer than that. The coarse stems let too much rain seep into the bales (rounds) and by the next summer they've collapsed into something like a ball of mush. Look more like a haystack than a bale. Even covered they tend to shrink and collapse, just slower. Finer stemmed grazer stores a LOT better.
As in most things, it's how you manage it that makes all the difference! Good luck! OL JR
Some guys here grow grazer and let it get ten feet tall before they cut it. Sure you get more tonnage but the quality suffers bigtime. A neighbor of mine that my Grandpa used to bale for had the secret to prime grazer hay. Plant it thick and when it gets waist high, cut it. Grazer produces most of it's leaves by that stage of growth, from waist high to 8-10 feet high is just stem elongation and stem thickening (harder to dry) and the leaves are getting older and less digestible. At waist high the stems should be about the diameter of a pencil or so, so they'll dry a lot faster. The leaves are younger and more tender too. When he got my Grandpa to come cut it that way the first time, Grandpa thought he was nuts. BUT when he saw the finished hay, he told him that was the best looking haygrazer he'd ever seen! Plus, by not waiting a couple extra weeks for it to get 8 feet tall, you should get an extra cut out of it with any luck and make up the tonnage difference anyway. And not having to leave it laying on the field a week waiting for stems to dry while the leaves cook in the sun (or worse yet it gets soaked by rain) means the quality and feed value will be a LOT higher than baling cane poles. PLUS, I've seen a lot of bales of grazer that was cut at 8-10 feet, and round bales of that stuff need to be fed that coming winter. It just won't store much longer than that. The coarse stems let too much rain seep into the bales (rounds) and by the next summer they've collapsed into something like a ball of mush. Look more like a haystack than a bale. Even covered they tend to shrink and collapse, just slower. Finer stemmed grazer stores a LOT better.
As in most things, it's how you manage it that makes all the difference! Good luck! OL JR
cowtrek
Well-known member
It's probably better that you planted a little thick. Thicker stand= finer stems and usually more leaves, especially with a good dose of fertilizer. I wouldn't go crazy with the N-- sorghum/sudan can do surprisingly well with little or no additional fertilizer. Millet is kissing cousins to sorgo/sudan so I'd expect it to respond similarly. The more N you put the taller it's gonna want to get, and you don't really want the stems. Stemmy= lower quality and harder to dry out for baling. The feed value is in the leaves and the stems just hold you back waiting for them to dry out enough to bale while the leaves sunburn and dry out.
Some guys here grow grazer and let it get ten feet tall before they cut it. Sure you get more tonnage but the quality suffers bigtime. A neighbor of mine that my Grandpa used to bale for had the secret to prime grazer hay. Plant it thick and when it gets waist high, cut it. Grazer produces most of it's leaves by that stage of growth, from waist high to 8-10 feet high is just stem elongation and stem thickening (harder to dry) and the leaves are getting older and less digestible. At waist high the stems should be about the diameter of a pencil or so, so they'll dry a lot faster. The leaves are younger and more tender too. When he got my Grandpa to come cut it that way the first time, Grandpa thought he was nuts. BUT when he saw the finished hay, he told him that was the best looking haygrazer he'd ever seen! Plus, by not waiting a couple extra weeks for it to get 8 feet tall, you should get an extra cut out of it with any luck and make up the tonnage difference anyway. And not having to leave it laying on the field a week waiting for stems to dry while the leaves cook in the sun (or worse yet it gets soaked by rain) means the quality and feed value will be a LOT higher than baling cane poles. PLUS, I've seen a lot of bales of grazer that was cut at 8-10 feet, and round bales of that stuff need to be fed that coming winter. It just won't store much longer than that. The coarse stems let too much rain seep into the bales (rounds) and by the next summer they've collapsed into something like a ball of mush. Look more like a haystack than a bale. Even covered they tend to shrink and collapse, just slower. Finer stemmed grazer stores a LOT better.
As in most things, it's how you manage it that makes all the difference! Good luck! OL JR
Some guys here grow grazer and let it get ten feet tall before they cut it. Sure you get more tonnage but the quality suffers bigtime. A neighbor of mine that my Grandpa used to bale for had the secret to prime grazer hay. Plant it thick and when it gets waist high, cut it. Grazer produces most of it's leaves by that stage of growth, from waist high to 8-10 feet high is just stem elongation and stem thickening (harder to dry) and the leaves are getting older and less digestible. At waist high the stems should be about the diameter of a pencil or so, so they'll dry a lot faster. The leaves are younger and more tender too. When he got my Grandpa to come cut it that way the first time, Grandpa thought he was nuts. BUT when he saw the finished hay, he told him that was the best looking haygrazer he'd ever seen! Plus, by not waiting a couple extra weeks for it to get 8 feet tall, you should get an extra cut out of it with any luck and make up the tonnage difference anyway. And not having to leave it laying on the field a week waiting for stems to dry while the leaves cook in the sun (or worse yet it gets soaked by rain) means the quality and feed value will be a LOT higher than baling cane poles. PLUS, I've seen a lot of bales of grazer that was cut at 8-10 feet, and round bales of that stuff need to be fed that coming winter. It just won't store much longer than that. The coarse stems let too much rain seep into the bales (rounds) and by the next summer they've collapsed into something like a ball of mush. Look more like a haystack than a bale. Even covered they tend to shrink and collapse, just slower. Finer stemmed grazer stores a LOT better.
As in most things, it's how you manage it that makes all the difference! Good luck! OL JR
HAY MAKER
Well-known member
Good post cowtrek,I have done it both ways ,waist high for better quality and tall as I could get it for more tonnage,then buy protein.
I thought you were in costal country over there LOL,do you know the Bohems in Shiner ?............good luck
I thought you were in costal country over there LOL,do you know the Bohems in Shiner ?............good luck
Herefordcross
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We're gonna graze it asap, two feet tall we're gonna put 'em in on it. And then pull 'em back off a few days later. We were looking for something to graze late in the fall.
Herefordcross
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Now we are just looking for something to graze at all. Feedin' hay waitin on rain, dumped more N on Millet so we have to wait on rain to push it up to bring down the N in the Millett.
Herefordcross
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Any of you guys ever seen this millett get kind of brown dead spots at the tips and edges of the leaves as it gets taller?
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Caustic Burno
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Heck I am scared to let the cows in my millet field, have to put some of those orange flags on them like on a kids bicycle to find them.
Herefordcross
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I'm still waitin' on it to get that tall for me CB.
Herefordcross
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CB think it might be dying I turned the cows on it today, they're having a field day.
cowtrek
Well-known member
HAY MAKER":utbtev61 said:
Yep I'm down here on the coast-- well 60 miles north of the beach anway but near enough. Been dry as a powderhouse until about a month ago though. Now the corn and sorghum are ready to cut and raining every few days- grounds' wet and can't get dry enough to cut hay either. At least I don't have the row crops to worry with anymore. Corn has already turned ears down and tops are all curled over. If we get a Gulf Storm they probably won't get the first ear...
Yeah I know the Boehms in Shiner. I bought 2 5610's from em and just about everything else nowdays. Our local New Holland dealer is a joke here.
I'd be real careful if that sudax or millet is drought stressed. Usually drying out of the leaf margins is a bad sign. I never put nitrogen under it because I've never seen the need to; stuff seems to grow like crazy no matter how much nitrogen you have in the field (or dont' have) Bad thing is if you put a bunch of N down and then have a dry spell, that's when the nitrates can really build up and give you problems. Nitrate buildup is really exacerbated by having too much N available for the available water in the soil. If growing conditions are good (adequate soil moisture) N buildup is put to use in growth, but if water is limiting growth the plants store that extra N waiting on the water, hence nitrate accumulation. If the soil N levels are low, it minimizes the problem since the N is less available just as the water is. I can't imagine much worse than going to the expense and trouble of planting sudax or millet and fertilizing it and then not being able to graze or bale it because of N accumulation. If it were me I'd leave the fertilizer wagon parked. JMHO! OL JR
cowtrek
Well-known member
HAY MAKER":1um6t9r2 said:
DUH! You meant coastal BERMUDAGRASS. More Jiggs here than anything else, except maybe Tifton 85. Got my sprigger ready to go but got 2.5 inches end of last week so I'm shutdown again. I was letting the cows graze off the J-grass and pigweed that came up out there when the storms hit so I'm sure they rutted the field real bad, probably have to disk again (for the THIRD TIME) before I can sprig. Hope to get some Jiggs in before too much longer.
The Coastal around Shiner looked pretty good last week. We've got a lot of KR bluestem on our place and it's really perked up. Glad to see it too! How're things out in the hill country?? You over near Fredericksburg? Looked dry there from another post on here. Shoot, been dry everywhere. Sure am thankful for the rain here, even if it threw a wrench in the works
Take it easy! OL JR Herefordcross
Well-known member
grazed it once and man alive, it's right back up to 18" and we haven't had a drop of rain until just now, we had a five minute shower, I wish it would set in on us for a few days.You know one of those slow steady rains, three days in a row would bring things right back up to par.
cowtrek
Well-known member
Herefordcross":2eg0u4c2 said:
Got another inch here today. Trying to disk a patch for sprigging and got more hay to cut. Wish we could send you the rain but we kinda need it again and so we'll take it. Hope we get a little dry weather for a few days again to get more baling done. Least this one's been a soaker and done some good.
Good luck and take it easy! OL JR
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Caustic Burno
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I have cut hay laying on the ground rotting , getting a inch everyday in the afternoon.
