sorghumsudan hay

ohiojeff

Member
I have a 2 acre plot that was used for pumpkins but now want to plant in hay, thought about trying some sorghumsudan grass before I plant a permanent hay field,has anyone had any luck with good yields or getting dry hay with it ?
 
I use it every year, there are many varieties and most of them are not hard to cure without a conditioner, look for BMR ''hay grazer'' varieties, they are leafy rather than stemmy and are cut at 30-36 inches instead of 5-6 feet like many of the old varieties that get rank growth and big stems.
 
I've never grown it but bought some for my goats. It was cheap enough and well, their goats, with a history of eating anything.

They wouldn't eat the stuff, even after I let them get too hungry. Ended up hauling it off and getting some coastal/weed/grass hay.
 
Interesting that your goats didn't eat it. After baling my acre plot of oats early this summer I drilled sudan grass for hay. It was ready for cutting and baling in late September and our little goat herd eats it right up.
 
The thicker it is sowed the smaller the stems will be and the easier it is to dry down. Like was mentioned, running it through a conditioner is a near must.
 
We used to grow this stuff on our small dairy farm in the 60's and green chopped it for the cows. They loved the stuff and milked like crazy on it.
 
(quoted from post at 08:56:40 11/26/12) Its been a long time, if I remember correctly. Dont you have to harvest it before it freezes?

One doesn't have to harvest Sudan before a frost but like all crops the protein % will be higher before frost. Of coarse frost will cause stress in the plant which can cause Prussic acid poisoning which will require hay to be stored for close to a month for the poisoning to dissipate so hay can be safely fed.
 
Frosted sudangrass should be left stand a week before cutting to allow the agents that cause prussic acid poisioning to recede from the plant. Once harvested for hay whatever the level of nitrates and prussic acid is is what it will be. Ensiling can reduce nitrates but not prussic acid risk. This has been all over the farm papers and magazines due to the drought this summer.
 
I bale a little bit every year. I have had real good luck with the hay and grazer varieties for dry down.
 
Planted some every year for as long as I had cattle; only way to have enough hay; (it'll out produce anything else we can grow around here and makes at least 2 and sometimes 3 cuttings per year). Personally, I wouldn't try to grow it without some way to condition it; typically, other hay (some combination of bermuda, lespedeza, white/red clovers, fescue, orchardgrass, etc) that I grew, I could cut on Monday and bale on Wednesday; for 'sudex', cut on Monday, bale on Thursday or Friday. One year in the '80s, it rained every week and I couldn't get it cut. When it finally quit raining, it was as tall as the exhaust pipe on the 4020; had to pull the (flail-type), disc mower conditioner in 1st or 2nd gear; baled just over 450(5 x 6) bales on 40 acres. Employee who was moving it said that he'd never got so tired of doing anything in his life.
 

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