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Summer annuals offer grazing options

Hay stocks are at record low levels in several Midwest states.  Ohio State University Extension natural resources educator Rory Lewandowski says summer annuals could provide farmers with additional grazing availability.  “We talk about things like sorghum, sudangrass, sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, millet, a product called teff, and even just regular field corn,” he says. 

So what makes these alternatives attractive?  “Well, all of these plants are warm season,” he says.  “They really like the hot temperatures.  Most of them also have some degree of drought tolerance or they can tolerate some of those low moisture situations.”

While forage quality for summer annuals is good at the vegetative growth stage, Lewandowski does caution that quality can decline quickly once the plant reaches its reproductive stage or in the case of extremely dry conditions, like 2012.

AUDIO: Rory Lewandowski, Summer Annuals (3:40mp3)

Some tips for planting summer annuals:

* Plant summer annuals when the soil temperature is 60 to 65 degrees.
* Plant forage sorghum at 12 to 15 pounds per acre.
* Plant millet, sudangrass and sorghum-sudangrass hybrids at 25 to 35 pounds per acre.
* Plant teff grass at 4 to 5 pounds per acre.
* Plant corn used as forage at about 80,000 kernels per acre and seeded with a grain drill.
* Soil pH should be 6.0 to 6.5, soil phosphorus should be at least 15 parts per million and soil potassium should be 100 to 125 parts per million.
* All summer annuals respond to nitrogen, and best yields will be obtained when 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre is applied before or at planting and then again following each cutting or grazing pass.