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Interseeding into forage sorghum

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dreambig@84

Member
Anyone had any luck with attracting deer to a sorghum plot? Don't have enough space for beans or corn.

Thought about planting sorghum for my grain and intersecting brassicas,rye and crimson clover into it so I have everything.

Thoughts?
 
I’ve had good luck with Sorghum for whitetail and try to plant it every year . Missed out this year. I think your plan will work.
 
dreambig@84 said:
Anyone had any luck with attracting deer to a sorghum plot? Don't have enough space for beans or corn.

Thought about planting sorghum for my grain and intersecting brassicas,rye and crimson clover into it so I have everything.

Thoughts?
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Sorghum is 1 of my must have, I like a smorgasbord.
Never put anything with it.
Just don't go to thick with the sorghum
 
Planted several areas of it this year for the first time mainly with pheasants in mind, but curious how the deer will react to it. I know for certain none of them have ever seen it in their lives, so not sure what to expect
 
YES.

Grain sorghum (not forage sorghum) is what you want if whitetail FOOD is what you're looking for. As a bonus, most grain sorghum (also called milo generically) varieties are in the 4' tall range. Only WGF Sorghum / Milo is shorter (2'-3' max) and doesn't offer much cover if you want a bit of both.

I like a 4' tall red grain sorghum variety for whitetail food because it's about the perfect height for a buck to eat the top off. Sounds like eating a bowl captain crunch on a quiet evening :)

FWIW, Deer will still knock down forage sorghum to eat the heads (if pollinated), but they don't have near the yield that grain sorghum does.

This taller sterile Forage Sorghum (Foreground) produced seed heads due to proximity of the nonsterile grain sorghum (Background). Note the grain sorghum heads are 2-3X larger than the forage sorghum head.

Haven't tried interseeding but I don't put down a residual so that's not an option for me. The ragweed / foxtail just adds to the mess of cover, but I'm trying to get food and cover for quail as well.. I do interseed with soybeans at the time of planting. Give them something to eat while the sorghum is growing. Anything that makes it to fall is just a bonus..

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By December 1 last fall, was just left with a field of stalks.. I have doubled my planting area and drilled in this year, so excited for the results ahead.

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I am going to be planting about 4.5 acres grain sorghum here in early July (nebraska), and then broadcast a variety of seed over the top of it, hopefully early to mid august. and then broadcast winter wheat or cereal rye over it again beginning of sept... This is the first time doing this so Ill let ya know how it goes... The soil is very much less than ideal and all of the farmers in the area say we cant grow anything on the soil.... but Im not believing them... and am going to add as much organic matter and build some good soil in the mean time... and if something grows then I will consider it a win!
 
ELK919 said:
I am going to be planting about 4.5 acres grain sorghum here in early July (nebraska), and then broadcast a variety of seed over the top of it, hopefully early to mid august. and then broadcast winter wheat or cereal rye over it again beginning of sept... This is the first time doing this so Ill let ya know how it goes... The soil is very much less than ideal and all of the farmers in the area say we cant grow anything on the soil.... but Im not believing them... and am going to add as much organic matter and build some good soil in the mean time... and if something grows then I will consider it a win!
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Unless you have phenomenal weed control you won’t have much bare dirt to broadcast into come fall..

That and too much canopy for much fall growth.
 
Bassattackr said:
Unless you have phenomenal weed control you won’t have much bare dirt to broadcast into come fall..

That and too much canopy for much fall growthh
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How tall you think the sorghum will be after 1 month from being planted? Because that’s approximately about when I would broadcast seed into it..
 
How hard is it to clean up all that foxtail and ragweed the following year to come back and do soybeans.
 
ELK919 said:
How tall you think the sorghum will be after 1 month from being planted? Because that’s approximately about when I would broadcast seed into it..
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Depends on the rains. Maybe 12" or so. Also depends on your row spacing of course..
 
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