Food Plots Proso millet with dwarf grain sorgham?

[megalomaniac]

Picked up my pre-ordered bundled seed from CO Op to plant summer plots this past trip.

I ordered enough seed for 10lbs dwarf grain sorgham/milo, 10lbs pearl millet, and 25lbs Hutchinson forage beans per acre. That's my usual summer blend and it works well.

Yesterday as we unbundled the seed, I realized they put Proso millet in the order instead of Pearl millet. We were already at my farthest location with the tractors to plant (10 miles from home base), so I said screw it, drill baby drill... But I have ral concerns the proso millet isn't going to be tall enough to get sunlight as the sorgham will get 6 to 7ft tall (Pearl millet does great with sorgham, as it gets 5ft tall). Proso is MUCH shorter than Pearl.

An unintended experiment.

Any of you guys use Proso as part of a summer blend? I've planted it as a monoculture for doves before, but I need biomass for what counts... fall plots

 

[Popcorn]

I have not grown it but reviewing it I think you will be fine. At 10 lbs sorghum that is relatively thin and the sorghum takes 75 to 90 days to mature. The proso is gonna be done in 60 to 70 days. It will seed back, die and produce a fall stand you will have to kill to plant in. The amount of biomass will be fine as it will be 2 crops of leafy matter rather than one of stalks. All this IMHO.
Pics please

Edited to add: it's gonna be a nitrogen addict! Feed it feed it feed it

 

[megalomaniac]

I have not grown it but reviewing it I think you will be fine. At 10 lbs sorghum that is relatively thin and the sorghum takes 75 to 90 days to mature. The proso is gonna be done in 60 to 70 days. It will seed back, die and produce a fall stand you will have to kill to plant in. The amount of biomass will be fine as it will be 2 crops of leafy matter rather than one of stalks. All this IMHO.
Pics please

Edited to add: it's gonna be a nitrogen addict! Feed it feed it feed it

Thanks for the insight! 10lbs of sorgham is about right in my prior blends so there is enough spacing for the beans to grow and vine up the sorgham stalks. I'll post pics after the blend gets established, just hoping the millet fills in enough to seed out and suppress weeds.

Who knows, may be a home run... or a disaster.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I don't know much about millet, other than trying to kill it out of some of our fields we planted several years ago for doves.

Few random questions:

1) Where do you get your seed? The Co-Ops around here for most variety of seeds, there isn't a big assortment of any type to choose from. Usually, if they can get a seed, you have 1 or 2 options, rarely 3. Wish we had a big seed company close.
2) Are those beans not a bush bean, but a climbing bean? If climbing, how much are they for a 50 lb bag? Are they RR ready?

We just got done planting our summer mixes Sunday. For screening roads, we did 2 drill passes of corn and 2 drill passes of Sudan sorghum. All the fields were drilled with what we had, which turned out to be about 100 lbs soybeans and 3-5 lbs/acre of corn mixed in with it. Our dove field is stripped out with corn, sorghum, sunflowers, and brown top millet. We shall see. I do know that everything planted the weekend of May 4th had sprouted within 4 days. Will be trying to crimp everything we drilled into this coming weekend (rye, wheat, oats, crimson).

 

[megalomaniac]

I don't know much about millet, other than trying to kill it out of some of our fields we planted several years ago for doves.

Few random questions:

1) Where do you get your seed? The Co-Ops around here for most variety of seeds, there isn't a big assortment of any type to choose from. Usually, if they can get a seed, you have 1 or 2 options, rarely 3. Wish we had a big seed company close.
2) Are those beans not a bush bean, but a climbing bean? If climbing, how much are they for a 50 lb bag? Are they RR ready?

We just got done planting our summer mixes Sunday. For screening roads, we did 2 drill passes of corn and 2 drill passes of Sudan sorghum. All the fields were drilled with what we had, which turned out to be about 100 lbs soybeans and 3-5 lbs/acre of corn mixed in with it. Our dove field is stripped out with corn, sorghum, sunflowers, and brown top millet. We shall see. I do know that everything planted the weekend of May 4th had sprouted within 4 days. Will be trying to crimp everything we drilled into this coming weekend (rye, wheat, oats, crimson).

My co op agronomist can get just about anything... if I give him a month's heads up notice

I love the generic Hutchinson soybeans. They are $33 a bag, and are a forage bean which produces plant growth rather than seed pod production. They will climb the sorgham stalks, and are crazy browse pressure tolerant. They are not roundup ready.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

My co op agronomist can get just about anything... if I give him a month's heads up notice

I love the generic Hutchinson soybeans. They are $33 a bag, and are a forage bean which produces plant growth rather than seed pod production. They will climb the sorgham stalks, and are crazy browse pressure tolerant. They are not roundup ready.

Is this in MS or TN? If TN, I don't mind making a descent drive for them.

Does it produce "some" beans, with the majority in making the plant? I may try something like that in the future, especially for that price.

 

[megalomaniac]

Is this in MS or TN? If TN, I don't mind making a descent drive for them.

Does it produce "some" beans, with the majority in making the plant? I may try something like that in the future, especially for that price.

In middle TN. They produce some small seed pods, nothing like traditional soybeans. But when the deer nip them off at 4in tall, they don't die, they fork and keep growing, and growing.

I don't need seed pods for late season don't even need to feed the deer in summer (but the deer eat them) I'm just putting them in my blend to fix nitrogen and build soil. The summer plot gets bushhogged early Aug, then terminated with gly before drilling fall blend, so all the beans are gone by Sept.

 

[Popcorn]

I don't mind making a descent drive for them.

I dont use this variety but when dealing with TN Farmers Coop I use Montgomery County Coop. Ron Grizzard and his guys are pretty resourceful and anxious to help

 

[BSK]

This weekend I'm planting (broadcast, not drilled, and then mowing standing winter crop onto seed) 50 lbs of Hutchinson soybeans and 12 lbs of WGS sorghum per acre.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Update on our soybeans, millet, corn and sorghum we drilled…

 

[JCDEERMAN]

This weekend I'm planting (broadcast, not drilled, and then mowing standing winter crop onto seed) 50 lbs of Hutchinson soybeans and 12 lbs of WGS sorghum per acre.

Where did you get your beans?

 

[megalomaniac]

Update on our soybeans, millet, corn and sorghum we drilled…

You got em in perfect!

I got 5 ac sprayed and planted last Monday, but then it started raining.

Buddy sprayed the remaining 9ac Thurs, plans to plant Fri... but rain again. Have to wait for the low fields to dry out to get my last seed in the ground, hopefully Tues or Wed

 

[BSK]

Where did you get your beans?

Had the Co-op order them. Like Mega wrote, just make sure you get your order in early.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

You got em in perfect!

I got 5 ac sprayed and planted last Monday, but then it started raining.

Buddy sprayed the remaining 9ac Thurs, plans to plant Fri... but rain again. Have to wait for the low fields to dry out to get my last seed in the ground, hopefully Tues or Wed

It is sloppy wet! I went down Friday in hopes to crimp all day Saturday. Too wet. A lot of our fall crops are starting to go to seed, so I'm hoping it dries out quick.

 

[Popcorn]

All of my river bottom ground has water standing. If I had planted early it would have drowned so we wait. I may be planting duck hole corn in June

 

[tellico4x4]

Wondering about the wheat & oats that are maturing. Thinking about broadcasting buckwheat, WGF & Sudan into & mowing. Can I expect germination out of the cereal grain as well? Going to forgo spraying as we got an awesome burn down last year & very few weeds. These are all 1-2 yr old plots & could use more green mamure

 

[Popcorn]

Depends on the stage of maturity

 

[BSK]

Wondering about the wheat & oats that are maturing. Thinking about broadcasting buckwheat, WGF & Sudan into & mowing. Can I expect germination out of the cereal grain as well? Going to forgo spraying as we got an awesome burn down last year & very few weeds. These are all 1-2 yr old plots & could use more green mamure

I have NOT seen good fall germination from cereal grains mowed after seed maturation. However, I have seen awesome fall germination from annual clovers mowed after seed maturation.

 

[megalomaniac]

Wondering about the wheat & oats that are maturing. Thinking about broadcasting buckwheat, WGF & Sudan into & mowing. Can I expect germination out of the cereal grain as well? Going to forgo spraying as we got an awesome burn down last year & very few weeds. These are all 1-2 yr old plots & could use more green mamure

If the wheat still has some green to it, it will just start to regrow after mowing. At least that's what my wheat does after bushhogging it late April/ early May.

TBH, I'm not sure what causes wheat to terminate in the late spring/ early summer... whether it's higher temps or maturity of the plant itself.

Got everything else drilled yesterday (10 ac), save for my lowest, worst draining plot. Good chance for rain Fri, but there was already decent soil moisture in the ground from the rains last weekend

 

[BSK]

Got everything else drilled yesterday (10 ac), save for my lowest, worst draining plot. Good chance for rain Fri, but there was already decent soil moisture in the ground from the rains last weekend

We've already had 5.26" of rain this May and expecting another 2.5" by Tuesday of next week. Very wet. Glad my plots are on ridge-tops. My ridge-top roads are the muddiest I've seen in late May in many years. Actually sloppy muddy in places.