Teff grower in Texas

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Layman

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Hello a novice here, a non farmer (tech background). My friend and I want to try growing teff in Texas to be used for human consumption. Anyone here tried growing teff? Even as a hay? Is anyone interested to grow teff for us in contractual terms on 10-20 acres for our first year?
 
I'm definitely not in your area (SE MN). I did plant some Teff in a pasture for grass for the cattle. And we have friends from Ethiopia that use the grain as flour for making bread, and wanted me to start growing it for marketing to that ethnic market... hard to find here in the States I guess. Too much trouble for me to go that route, with me being a "regenerative farmer" and having converted all my cropland to pasture raised grass-fed beef. It seems to be a good quality grass for feed in the vegetative state, but I can outyield it with more conventional species pretty easily. But interested in what your goals with it are. For "grain" I assume?
 
I see and yes we wanted it for grain. By outyield you mean that teff doesn't produce as much as other crop for animal feed?
 
I see and yes we wanted it for grain. By outyield you mean that teff doesn't produce as much as other crop for animal feed?
That's been my experience. Good quality feed though, if taken in vegetative stage... much like other small grains. Have to reseed it every year, as it winterkills.
 
we have tried it for a couple of years in a little hay patch. The cattle and horses really like it and it bales up pretty nicely. I will probably do some again, I'm not sure about the grain part, we're not set up for that. There's a few things that do make it a little problematic for us. It has to be replanted every year and preparation for it isn't the easiest. The land needs to be worked pretty well and then rolled back pretty firmly. We disc, then till, then roll then plant. The seed is so small that planting isn't easy. We have broadcast by hand and mixed with sand and then used a spreader with equal results. The teff grows pretty well for us but the land has to be about 70 degrees to start germination very well so the first cutting is always later that either bermuda or bahia but the production is pretty good, it seems like it's taking a while to start and then just shoots up. You can't mow as short as bermuda or bahia or it will struggle to come back for another cutting (we found that out the hard way when the youngest boy cut it low) it doesn't require much rain and it will still grow. I have about 3or 400 pounds of seed left so we will use it this year if the weather pans out but overall the other grasses are way easier
 
The teff grows pretty well for us but the land has to be about 70 degrees to start germination very well so the first cutting is always later that either bermuda or bahia but the production is pretty good, it seems like it's taking a while to start and then just shoots up. You can't mow as short as bermuda or bahia or it will struggle to come back for another cutting (we found that out the hard way when the youngest boy cut it low) it doesn't require much rain and it will still grow.
May be "more" true for teff..., but I've found even for making hay, the same is true for all of them. Same as grazing... leave some there as photo-receptors, so you're not "pruning the roots" to get regrowth. I mowed my hayfields really high (like 6-8") a couple years ago, and the regrowth on it was much stronger, BUT, my ground-driven bar rake had a real time trying to roll it into a windrow... too much drag on the rake teeth. Just like anything, you have to strike a balance.
 
I would recomend wilman love. A high volume palatable grass. Feed it to your cows and it will get started in your pasture. I will attach videos of my pasture. The cattle love the grass. I have an unusual ranch. I have a 640 sandy pasture with a 100 acre wilman love grass field. It corners with a 320 caliche pasture with a lot of good soil with a 35 acre klein grass field. I weaned my calves that had been in the sandy pasture. I left a wilman love bale next to the pen and expected the calves to go into the rested 320 acre pasture with the green klein grass. I come back a week later and the 35 calves had completely eaten the wilman love bale. It wasn't even fertilized. I called the calves into the klein grass field and shut the gated. 3 weeks later I noticed 5 calves were missing!! The had jumped out and went to the wilman love grass field which was a mile away and jumped into the field. Here is proof it wll spread.



feed the hay that will reseed your pasture. I have hay to sell. 3252476342
 
I would recomend wilman love. A high volume palatable grass. Feed it to your cows and it will get started in your pasture. I will attach videos of my pasture. The cattle love the grass. I have an unusual ranch. I have a 640 sandy pasture with a 100 acre wilman love grass field. It corners with a 320 caliche pasture with a lot of good soil with a 35 acre klein grass field. I weaned my calves that had been in the sandy pasture. I left a wilman love bale next to the pen and expected the calves to go into the rested 320 acre pasture with the green klein grass. I come back a week later and the 35 calves had completely eaten the wilman love bale. It wasn't even fertilized. I called the calves into the klein grass field and shut the gated. 3 weeks later I noticed 5 calves were missing!! The had jumped out and went to the wilman love grass field which was a mile away and jumped into the field. Here is proof it wll spread.



feed the hay that will reseed your pasture. I have hay to sell. 3252476342

we have horses as well, do they do ok on it?
 
I know this poster is asking about growing Teff for grain, so this doesn't apply to their question, but I thought others who were thinking of buying Teff to feed as hay, may find it interesting.

We buy all of our hay every year from the same farmer. A while back he grew a field of Teff and asked us if we wanted to try some, so I took 5 ton to try it out. I don't remember if he mentioned the variety. He has not grown it again, because of some issues he had with it. We had the hay delivered to the barn where we store the hay fed to the bulls. If looked beautiful, fine and green. I figured the bulls would really like it. The bulls always have access to pasture, but we also limit feed hay in winter. It is fed in a round bale feeder that is set up on cement, so there usually is very little waste. For some reason they would always leave some of that hay and since it rains here most days in winter, we would end up cleaning up some nasty damaged waste in the morning. Now that we have run out of Teff, we are back to feeding an orchard, rye grass mixture of hay. They seem to clean up every bit of that, so I would not buy the Teff again.
 

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