Forage Sorghum

Doing some experimenting with a new plant for us, Forage Sorghum. We’ve planted it’s cousin Sorghum/Sudan grass before but never the forage sorghum. The plans are to have this crop grow to 7-8 feet tall by early September and then chop it for silage. As you can see in the pictures it looks like corn but instead of producing an ear it will produce a grain head on top. The particular variety we planted is called a brachytic dwarf which is shorter than regular but produces a higher percentage leaf (more nutritious). We also use a brown-mid rib variety which you can see the center rib on the leaf is actually brown. This also makes the plant less fibrous and more nutritious. Our plans are to cut it like hay before it produces the grain and the sugars are still in the stalk. Then we will let it dry for 2-3 days on the ground before chopping it for silage. Others have done it and tell me it works, but I’m still questioning some upcoming hurdles. The first is the size of the stalk, the picture shows one plant that already has a stalk 4” wide. Hopefully our discbine will handle these massive stalks. Another is the ability to get it to dry down enough to make good silage. The plant will be 90% moisture when we cut it and hopefully in 2-3 days of drying it will get below 70% that is needed to make good silage. Then the final hurdle I can foresee is getting it to feed into the chopper like hay does. We are going to start doing some trials in late August so hopefully we have all the kinks worked out before we need to cut the 80 acres that we planted this year. 

Why the attempt to try Forage Sorghum? Forage Sorghum grows in a shorter time window than corn silage, we can plant in mid-June and harvest early September. So we can get 2 cuttings of my beloved ryegrass in the spring and still get ryegrass planted early enough to have grazing by early November. Finally the nutrition in the Forage Sorghum silage should have the right balance of protein and energy to be a complete feed for our cattle to keep the superior marbling and yet be “grass finished.” Going to take a few years of trials and will keep you posted.