Benefits of a New Summer Seed Mix on our Indiana Farm Fields

In 2024, Fischer Farms worked with Keith Berns, owner of Green Cover Seeds, to create a 9-way summer annual mix for cattle grazing. Fischer Farms had experimented with summer annuals that primarily used sorghum sudan grass in the on- farm work leading up to the beginning of the Ultimate Beef Research Project. The main issues we experienced were the high nitrogen fertilizer requirements and difficulty in grazing. Sorghum sudan grows so fast it is hard to graze before the stem gets woody and is susceptible to trampling.

The goal of the new seed mix was to reduce fertilizer use, improve the quality of forage, and the number of grazing days. A key goal in all of these experiments is to produce higher quality beef and lower costs while improving soil health.

Our Process

The 9-way mix consists of:

6# - BMR Pearl Millet

2# - Impact Forage Collards

15# - Iron & Clay Cowpeas

4# - Buckwheat

5# - Mung Beans

5# - Non-GMO Soybeans

10# - Spring Oats

6# - BMR Dwarf Sorghum Sudan

5# - Sunn Hemp

(2 inoculants were also used: BioL211- elevated fungi biological, NOC080– warm season liquid rhizo-fixer plus inoculant)

This mix was no-till planted into ryegrass in early June that had stopped new growth due to the heat. Ryegrass scavenges nitrogen so after grazing or harvesting mechanically, very little nitrogen is left in the soil, so we put on a starter of 30 pounds of nitrogen. For reference: in previous years we would put 50-75 pounds of nitrogen down for sorghum sudan across the growing season from June – October.

The 9-way summer annual mix performed extremely well even in the midst of 3 small droughts. It had no rain for 3 weeks after planting but still germinated well because the entire mix was planted 2” deep in high organic matter soils where there was moisture.  Then, we received 7” of rain in two days around July 4 then followed a period of very little rain and high temperatures until hurricane Helene brought 2” on September 30 and followed by almost no rain in October.

Approximately 150, 600-850 pound stockers were grazed all summer on the 83 acres with supplementation feed available during the early growth stages. This mix performed extremely well with only the small amount (30 pounds) of nitrogen fertilizer. Also, this mix had enough legumes fixating nitrogen to eliminate the need for fall nitrogen application on the ryegrass mix planted in September/October. The great results of this crop seem to have benefited from high level of mycorrhiza fungi which kept the crop with moisture during the drought periods.

Gabe Brown and others have posted many webinars on the value of mycorrhiza fungi but essentially it extends the root system to give plants access to more nutrients and moisture. It also connects plant root systems to allow nutrient sharing. In 2024, we confirmed the widespread establishment of the mycorrhiza fungi. In 2025, we plan to analyze in more detail the levels of mycorrhiza fungi and their impact. It is known that plant diversity and limited fertilizer use is a key to have large amounts of mycorrhiza fungi. Our experiments in the future will focus on ease of establishment, lowering costs and understanding the variables that impact the volume of mycorrhiza fungi.

Jason Tower, Superintendent of the Southern Indiana Purdue Ag Center stated, “The diversity in the annual mix benefits not only the quality of diet for animal but it also improves soil health by encouraging symbiotic relationships between the plant species and the teaming microbial life in the soil. These species of plants and soil life build nitrogen in the soil, capture carbon and make other nutrients available.”

Looking Ahead

In 2025, we have plans to plant 200+ acres on our farm and a network farmers field that he converted from corn/soybeans to this mix to improve his soils. In 2024, we planted 83 acres of this mix and plan to have 200+ acres in 2025. We will also be conducting trials of harvesting this crop as silage for winter feeding.

We are working now to tweak the mix. We are also going to test feeding this silage to finishing calves for the last 60 days as research by Michigan State University shows this will greatly improve the nutrition profile to nearly match grass finished, with low Omega 3:6 ratio.

We will monitor the rate of gain, meat quality, and costs and publish our results. This mix could be a replacement for corn silage on beef and dairy farms with a large reduction in fertilizer and costs as well as tremendous improvements in soil health.