They have moderate tolerance to salinity and are less expensive to establish. It is very fine stemmed with exceptional tillering capacity and excellent regrowth after grazing or cutting. Hybrid forage sorghums are usually developed from a forage sorghum female and a Sudan grass male plant. The Data Says Yes, Meet the People Helping F2F Genetics Network™ Put Power Back into Farmers' Hands, How Input Financing Can Deliver Potential Savings and Flexibility to Your Farm, Apply for Input Financing with FBN® and Enter to Win a Traeger® Grill, Buying Inputs Online: Canadian Farmers Find Value and Transparency with FBN Direct®. Heads ripen from the top down, so evaluate seeds from the middle of the head to determine soft dough stage. Sorghum sudangrass is a cross between sorghum and sudangrass with a finer stem. When used for green chopped forage, yields of sorghum-sudangrass hybrids usually exceed sudangrass or forage sorghum. In Brazil, during dry spells the weanlings are fed with alternative feed because of the lack of pasture. Related: Thanks to China, grain sorghum gains … They are used primarily for forage, grazing, green chop, silage and hay. •Forage sorghum silage yields have been similar to those of corn while using 30 percent less irrigation water •Sorghums will yield 1.75 to 2.5 tons of biomass per one inch of irrigation water •Sorghum silage yield increased approximately 0.75 ton/acre (at 65 percent moisture) for … Immature corn silage is a lot like sorghum or sorghum sudan. Seed 25-60 lbs/A at a depth of 3/4 to 1 1/4 inches. Sudangrass  grows from 4 to 7 feet tall, has leaves about 12 inch wide and stems about 14 inch in diameter. Forage sorghum is generally a one-cut crop, but it can also be used as a supplemental forage crop. Plant when the soil temperatures are at least 60 degrees. Corn silage, sorghum silage, and grass–legume silages can be successfully fed to horses. Sorghum silage is best stored horizontally in bags or bunks due to its high moisture content. DM yields can be as high as those of maize but the yield of total digestible nutrients is much lower. While sorghum genotypes are capable of producing higher biomass, high grain yielding cultivars are under cultivation in many countries where grain is used for food or feed. Forage sorghum usually does not regrow following harvest, unlike sorghum-sudangrass or sudangrass, so forage sorghum is best adapted to a single-cut harvest for silage. Sorghum × sudangrass is a cross between sorghum (S. bicolor (L.) Moench) as the female parent and sudangrass (S. sudanense Piper) as the male parent. These varieties have smaller diameter stalks,which improve drydown for hay and palatability for cattle versus forage sorghums normally used for silage. Sorghum Sudangrass is a cross between sorghum and sudangrass with a finer stem. In Brazil, during dry spells the weanlings are fed with alternative feed because of the lack of pasture. See sales order form for additional terms and conditions. The maximum growth height is 15 feet tall and typically has small seed heads. Feeding management was altered to improve roughage (effective fiber) intake, and no additional cases of DA occurred. Making sorghum-sudangrass into hay is difficult because of the slow drying time. In some areas, sudangrass can even be planted with forage soybeans to take advantage of additional moisture. BMR varieties should be harvested early. Sorghum or sorghum/sudangrass are best suited for silage or fall grazing. Single cut: Grain sorghum. Forage sorghum (sweet sorghum) (Sorghum vulgare). Sowing at higher rates, 70 lbs or more, makes an … (See page 97 in the 2013 Guide.) Single cut: Grain sorghums and sweet sorghums (forage sorghum) are usually harvested for silage in a single cut. Usually 1 lb of hay is equivalent to about 3 lb of silage. Forage sorghums are best suited for silage. These heifers were confined within a barn and fed a ration consisting of orange peels, cotton peels, broiler manure, barley, and corn straw (vitamin A estimate 4750 IU total daily intake; NRC recommendation 75 IU/kg body weight/day or ≈ 45,000 IU for a 600-kg (1320-lb) cow24). Sudangrass hybrids are available that are slightly larger and higher yielding. The hybrids are higher yielding than sudangrass and pearl millet, but they yield less than sweet sorghum. Multiple cut: Sudan grass (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench var. Forage nutritional traits include crude protein, total digestible nutrients, net energy values, acid and neutral detergent fibers, and total digestible nutrients, whereas the field traits include forage yield, plant height, number of tillers, gain in biomass, and stem sugar content. Yields of forage sorghums are comparable to corn and can range from 15- to 30-ton per acre depending on the soil, weather, and the … The average forage yield was 22.3 tons/acre with yields ranging from 27.8 to 12.6 tons/acre. Recently, several producers successfully made high - quality "baleage" from sorghum/sudangrass. It can cause digestive upsets and even death. … Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids with the brown midrib (BMR) gene will produce forage with higher fiber digestibility, making it more like corn silage. Under less frequent cutting, they are more vigorous. Stems and tillers are finer and more suitable for grazing, and dry down for haymaking more readily than other sorghum types. Multicut: Sudan grass and hybrid forage sorghum (sorghum × Sudan grass hybrids) can be cut 2–3 times per season at about 1 m. Later cuts produce higher yields but lower quality feed. Yields have ranged from 3 to 5 tons/A dry matter. Cows fed the pelletized ration were 10.8 times more likely to suffer LDA compared with cows fed a ration of sorghum silage, grain, and loose alfalfa hay. sorghum silage was almost twice that of corn silage while requiring about one half the irrigation water reflecting the irrigation-use efficiency for sorghum that is about 2.5 times that of corn (Figure 1; TAWC, 2007). More than 50% of the yield is in the stems. Protein digestibility: The crude protein content of sorghum forage is usually higher than that of maize but the protein is less digestible and as with maize protein supplementation is required. Potential Drawbacks. In Horse Feeding and Nutrition (Second Edition), 1991. By continuing you agree to the use of cookies. Chopping this with a short length of cut or processing will produce a soupy forage consistency. Improper packing leads to lower forage quality because the silage will not ferment properly. F2F Genetics Network branded seed products and other seed products are offered by FBN Inputs, LLC and are available only in states where FBN Inputs, LLC is licensed. Sorghum × Sudan grass hybrids. Once Sorghum-Sudan grass begins to head out, the quality and feeding value drop drastically. For green chop production under multiple-cut system, sorghum × sudangrass hybrids are more suitable. Want quality genetics at a fair price? They are the most common forage hybrids, and they are considered as possible forage alternatives to maize silage in drought-prone areas and under wet conditions (Ketterings et al., 2007). Sudan grass hybrids have been developed from crosses of Sudan grass strains. Special silage varieties have been developed that are taller than the dwarf grain varieties. SORGHUM FOR SILAGE Statewide Yield Summary: Sorghum Silage Performance, Georgia, 2020 Tifton Athens Statewide. Silage is high in moisture and distends the digestive tract if too much is fed. It is a warm season annual grass and will regrow after each harvest. Sorghums are drought resistant and become dormant in extended dry periods. Forage sorghum is best if you are after a single huge silage cut. In a survey of data collected on pasture-grazed dairy cattle in Australia, the incidence of DA was only 0.06%.22 Markusfeld23 (1989) found hypovitaminosis A in a group of dairy heifers, of which 18.5% had LDA. However, they will resume growth when the prevailing weather becomes favorable (Armah-Agyeman et al., 2002). The smaller stems give it better drying characteristics than other sorghums for hay making. We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. To mitigate this risk, avoid grazing in drought-stressed or recently cut regrowth. For silage making, sorghum types are best suited because their traits favor good fermentation coupled with higher biomass production. Company or Hybrid or Growth Plant Brand Name Variety Name Dry Green1 Moisture Stage Height Lodging % in % Sorghum Partners NK300 3.69 10.5 81 vegetative 66 0 Dyna-Gro Super Sile 30 3.39 9.7 81 boot 77 0 Desert Sun DSM 448-980 3.30 9.4 77 vegetative 53 0 Alta Seeds ADV F8322 … The whole plant is often used as forage, hay, and silage. Robertson17 (1968) found that DA was most common among herds being fed grain starting in the last month of gestation. Quality and yield are stable near harvest with a balance between stem sugar content and grain yield. Presumably, this would cause abomasal atony and predisposition to displacement. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(1667865, 'f405b29f-26f8-41e1-a641-6391192471aa', {}); Forage sorghum is a tall plant—usually growing to heights of 8-12 feet—that generates a great deal of biomass. Sudangrass, forage sorghum, and sorghum-sudan hybrids will tolerate moderate levels of atrazine. Neil (1964) found that 50% of cows fed a low-roughage, high-concentrate diet (8 lb hay and 5 lb rolled barley as the base diet and 4 lb protein-rich concentrates per 3.87 L of milk produced) suffered displacement of the abomasum.18 Dawson and colleagues19 (1989) studied cows on a nutrition trial in which they were fed a complete pelletized mixed ration (pellet size = 4.8 mm) containing 15% to 20% crude protein and 30% alfalfa. The original ration (DM 71.5%, NE-L 0.78, CP 17.9%, ADF 26.6%, and NDF 45.5%) was changed to increase energy and decrease both acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber (DM 61.2%, NE-L 0.80, CP 17.2%, ADF 22.6%, and NDF 37.1%). tall) when harvested as green chop or silage. They can yield close to 20 tonnes DM ha−1 and are nearly equal in quality to corn silage. Safened seed is required if using Dual or Bicep-like herbicides containing s-metolachlor. Forage sorghum silage is usually slightly lower in energy than corn silage and is similar in protein. Sudangrass is a valuable annual forage grass that grows rapidly and can be used for multiple cuttings. Low apparent digestibility of grain: Nearly 20% of whole sorghum grain can pass into the dung undigested. Unfortunately, it is difficult to produce mold-free silage. The conclusion so far is that utilization of sorghum forage as a total replacement for maize silage in the diets of lactating cows is possible in some cases. Many who use silage feed it to mature idle horses, mares not in foal, and horses not used extensively for work or riding. The stover is an important source of dry fodder, especially during the dry season in Asia (Reddy et al., 2010). Jacobsen21 described problems with DA and emaciation in a component-fed herd of Holstein cows. In‐season precipitation plus irrigation totaled 24.1 inches. They are thick stemmed and hard to dry for hay but they can supply ample yields of silage, green chop and pasture when perennial grasses are slowing down or going dormant. If you’ve grown sorghum before or are exploring planting it this crop year, you’re probably aware of the diverse array of hybrids available. With adequate moisture and fertilization, later cuttings should occur in approx. Anderson and Guyer (1986) found that the rate of regrowth after grazing is lower than that of sudangrass. Sorghums are also best suited as silage crops in addition to green chop. Forage sorghum, sudangrass, and sorghum-sudangrass hybrids (sudex) are exceptionally heat and drought tolerant annual crops that are used as cover crops, pasture, hay, and silage. BMR varieties have been developed with similar digestibility to maize but they will lodge. A list of herbicides labeled for use in sorghum in Nebraska is available in the latest edition of the UNL Guide to Weed Management. And if you’re specifically looking at options for silage, grazing and more, forage sorghum and sudangrass may provide opportunities for you to save on input costs while allowing you to take advantage of marginal acres and limited water resources. Quality of sudangrass silage is inferior to that of, ). Surpass BMR6 Sorghum Sudangrass can be used for hay, baleage, silage, greenchop, or directly grazed. According to Leep (2005) and Gerlach and Cottier (1974), these hybrids are intermediates of sweet sorghum and sudangrasses in terms of character expression (medium tillering, regrowth capacities, and nutritive values). Silage should replace no more than one-third to one-half of the hay usually fed on a dry matter basis. Sudan grass has lower yield than sorghum × Sudan hybrids but can be managed to produce higher quality feed. Nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) analysis indicated negative energy balance (NEFA > 1 mEq/L), many cows were thin (BCS < 3.5 at calving or dry-off), and the incidence of DA was approximately 19%. They are higher yielders than sudangrass, with better regrowth for grazing or multiple harvests. It has been estimated that switching 30,000 acres from irrigated maize silage, irrigated grain sorghum, and dry land grain sorghum to irrigated sorghum silage will result in economic benefit amounting to $4.904 million. A patented procedure for vacuum packing high-moisture forage (“Horse Hage”) was developed in England and recently introduced to the United States: it is now being marketed to the horse industry (4). The grain content of the forage is near 50%, which is higher than maize. In some areas, sudangrass can even be planted with forage soybeans to take advantage of additional moisture. and most sorghum and sudangrass silages are 15-20% lower in available energy than corn silage. Forage Sorghum and Sudangrass: Two Alternatives for Livestock and More, sorghum often comes up as a cost-effective alternative, USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Ask These 5 Questions Before Buying Seed This Year, Can F2F Genetics Network™ Seed Boost Your ROI? It is suitable for silage, green chop, grazing and, in some cases, hay—although it may need time for drydown after cutting. If you have cut poor quality forage, it will make poor quality baleage. It is difficult to meet nutrient requirements of high production or early lactation milking cows when Sorghum-Sudan grass is a large part of the forage intake. Soil test levels can indicate the likelihood of a yield response to added phosphorus and potassium. Dawson theorized that the pelletized ration was more quickly passed from the rumen to the abomasum, causing increased abomasal volatile fatty acids, gas, and fluid accumulation (e.g., abomasal fermentation). 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