marksmu
Well-known member
Ive got a ranch in Anahuac, Tx - deep south east Texas within 3 miles of East bay...
Ive got 105 acres of my best draining land (we have alot of drainage issues due to being at sealevel) finally showing good soil tests. Hurricane Ike, severely salted our fields, and it took 26 inches of rain to get my soil on par.
At any rate - I was planning on planting Winter Rye in October, and then come March, burning off the dried up Rye, and then drilling a hybrid Bermuda grass...that was until I started reading the posts on Millet...The price of the millet is literally 1/3 the price of the Bermuda, the yield seems higher, and the fertilizer costs 1/5 the price...What are the downsides to planting millet? Is there a better choice than Millet or Bermuda even? Our fields all have a clay base about 24" inches below our top soil, we average about 54+ inches of rain/year, and on a normal year I would say our growing season is from mid March through October....
Ive got alot of extra pasture at the moment (39 cows on 780 acres) and so getting this field to be excellent is a priority as its directly in between my two currently improved pastures...both in bahia and I am in no hurry.
I am planning on not having to feed hay, so I intend to rotate the cows between pastures frequently...to keep the pastures at ideal heights.
Any suggestions on the best grasses? Drawbacks to millet? advantages to something else? I spoke to the FSA about it already, and they seem to think pretty much everything will work alright...they say, as long as you can get the water off, you cant go wrong with alot of sun and alot of water. The only crop they say they cant get to work in our particular location was Corn...there is an ongoing joke, that the only corn ever harvested in our area was done by the insurance company.
Look forward to opinions.
Ive got 105 acres of my best draining land (we have alot of drainage issues due to being at sealevel) finally showing good soil tests. Hurricane Ike, severely salted our fields, and it took 26 inches of rain to get my soil on par.
At any rate - I was planning on planting Winter Rye in October, and then come March, burning off the dried up Rye, and then drilling a hybrid Bermuda grass...that was until I started reading the posts on Millet...The price of the millet is literally 1/3 the price of the Bermuda, the yield seems higher, and the fertilizer costs 1/5 the price...What are the downsides to planting millet? Is there a better choice than Millet or Bermuda even? Our fields all have a clay base about 24" inches below our top soil, we average about 54+ inches of rain/year, and on a normal year I would say our growing season is from mid March through October....
Ive got alot of extra pasture at the moment (39 cows on 780 acres) and so getting this field to be excellent is a priority as its directly in between my two currently improved pastures...both in bahia and I am in no hurry.
I am planning on not having to feed hay, so I intend to rotate the cows between pastures frequently...to keep the pastures at ideal heights.
Any suggestions on the best grasses? Drawbacks to millet? advantages to something else? I spoke to the FSA about it already, and they seem to think pretty much everything will work alright...they say, as long as you can get the water off, you cant go wrong with alot of sun and alot of water. The only crop they say they cant get to work in our particular location was Corn...there is an ongoing joke, that the only corn ever harvested in our area was done by the insurance company.
Look forward to opinions.