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Emergency Hay And Silage Crops
Emergency hay crops to consider include sudangrass, sorghum, sorghum x sudan hybrids and millets.
Planting dates for crops such as sundangrass, sorghum, sorghum x sudan hybrids can be planted as late as early July. These crops are warm season grasses and develop rapidly under warm, moist conditions. Foxtail millet would be the best choices for emergency hay. Proso millets are slightly inferior to foxtail hay millets for hay.
Sorghum and sudans make better silage than hay, since they tend to be somewhat coarse, thick stemmed and hard to dry and cure.
Seeding rates recommended for the warm season grasses include: 25-30 pounds/A for drilled sudangrass and 5-8 pounds/A in planted rows, for sorghum a seeding rate of 5 to 8 pounds/A in rows is recommended. Foxtail millet should be drilled in at rates of 15-25 pounds of seed per acre.
Acceptable varieties of sudan are Piper, a public variety with low prussic acid content, and many commercial seed company varieties or hybrids. Good foxtail millet varieties that are available and have been tested in the area are Manta, White Wonder, German, Butte and Empire.
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