Sunn Hemp

[Stickney94]

Interested as well -- not familiar with the plant -- looked up seed options and saw that the flowers/seeds can be toxic to cattle? (HERE is where I saw that)

 

[ClinchValley86]

I'm also curious how it turned out.

 

[Cowman42]

I tried it a few times in the last few years in small plots of disturbed soil. I inoculated it and broadcast spread it in a mix with Teff grass, Berseem Clover, Crimson clover, Daikon Radish and some other stuff I don't recall.......It didn't grow much over 8", the clover seemed to smother it? For some reason the cows wouldn't eat the Teff. They killed the hemp trampled the Teff and loved the clover. The radish was ignored till they came back around in the fall. The clover and Teff grew back but the hemp was done.

 

[Ebenezer]

I tried it a few times in the last few years in small plots of disturbed soil. I inoculated it and broadcast spread it in a mix with Teff grass, Berseem Clover, Crimson clover, Daikon Radish and some other stuff I don't recall.......It didn't grow much over 8", the clover seemed to smother it? For some reason the cows wouldn't eat the Teff. They killed the hemp trampled the Teff and loved the clover. The radish was ignored till they came back around in the fall. The clover and Teff grew back but the hemp was done.

You must be too far north. Here it gets up to 7' tall and does well.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Interested as well -- not familiar with the plant -- looked up seed options and saw that the flowers/seeds can be toxic to cattle? (HERE is where I saw that)

19. Can you use sunn hemp as an animal feed?

Some varieties of sunn hemp produce harmful alkaloids (most highly concentrated in seeds), while others are non-toxic and make excellent forage. 'Tropic Sun' is a standard variety that is safe for animal feed. 'AU Golden' and 'AU Durbin' have high leaf quality for livestock feed (25–30% crude protein). Because leaves have greater nutritive value than stems, seeding at lower densities encourages high leaf-to-stem ratios and increases the forage value. Begin grazing livestock on sunn hemp plants when the plants reach a height of 1.5–3 feet. This prevents plants from growing too tall for the livestock to reach. To allow regrowth, stubble should not be reduced by grazing to less than 12–18 inches tall. About 20% production from regrowth may be expected.

Interesting and good to know about the toxicity. I had never heard of it being toxic, but found the above after your post. Your post reminds me and is worth noting by others that although 'variety' in a forage plant usually makes only slight differences, occasionally the difference can be as extreme as night and day.

 

[crossbreed]

Planted the cocktail over the weekend. I still have the cows grazing down the winter rye and will take them off this weekend as the sales guy thought mung beans first and then to expect everything to emerge rapidly. I'll be taking pictures to monitor results with temperatures, rain and time

 

[Little Joe]

I was the one who originally started this thread 4 years ago and just now decided I would try Sunn Hemp. Placed my order yesterday morning from Petcher Seed, got an email yesterday evening stating that they weren't allowed to ship it to Arkansas so they refunded my money. Bummer. I knew some states didn't allow it but didn't think Arkansas was one of them.