sorghum

[Josh Anderson]

I was wondering how sorghum would work for food plots for deer. i hunt in way northern Minnesota about 5 miles from canada and the closest Ag field is like 10 miles away. I have thought about corn and soybeans but we have lower ground and often cant get into the food plots until july. so i was thinking sorghum for a late season into winter plot. Any thoughts?

 

[wiscwhip]

rye and brassicas

 

[SD51555]

I'm going to mix some into the rotation this year to see if it gets any attention.

 

[tooln]

Being that far North I'd have to agree with Wiscwhip. Winter rye not rye grass.

 

[JackTerp]

We planted some sorghum into a two acre clover plot last year. We just happened to get some from a friend and our neighbor drilled it into the clover. We planted it way too early according to most people, about the middle of June.

When it grew, about 5 feet tall, we noticed a tremendous increase in daylight usage of the plot. I think it's a security issue. Never noticed any browsing of it though. We found beds in it and kicked up deer every time we went through it. This plot never got much daylight usage until late November. Once the heads ripened, the turkey tore it up. Deer usage continued into and through rifle season. 4 of our young members harvested doe in that field.

We plan to use it again this year but plant it later. IIRC, we planted two pounds of seed total. This ws on our property in SW PA. I can't say how it will do on wet soil though. Ours is on a well drained hillside.

 

[wiscwhip]

Agreed stu, and if you wanted grain from soybeans or corn you had better be spot on with the maturity date of those as well.

 

[wiscwhip]

If you are looking for something that stands up and has a short maturity window, I think millet might be one option that would grow decent in that short growing window. It has a shorter growing season than sorghum/milo. There are some varieties that will mature in around 60-75 days, and some millets do well in moist soils, so you might be able to plant a bit earlier when it is still a bit on the wet side yet. I know the deer aren't as fond of it as maybe the birds are(although I have seen deer feed heavily on foxtail millet seed heads), but as a late season food source, the grain heads would be better than starvation browse.

 

[Josh Anderson]

we do plant rye, ww, brassicas, winter peas, alfalfa, clover and soybeans. we had 3 acres of soybeans last year and the deer never let them grow. and everything else will get covered by snow in winter so i was looking for something i could plant that would be above the snow

 

[wiscwhip]

What is your first frost date?

 

[Josh Anderson]

mid September. 15-17? around there

 

[wiscwhip]

I don't know where you source your seed from, but Dakota's Best Seed in Platte, SD has some good sorghum types for more northern locations. You may want to contact them for some more info.

 

[wiscwhip]

You would have to get a fairly short maturity sorghum if you can't plant until July and then get frosted out by Sept 15 to ensure the grain would mature in time to produce a viable winter food source. That would give you about a 75 day window, so no 90-110 day sorghum varieties in your case.

 

[SD51555]

I'm going to try to source a few pounds of this from Milborn in Brookings, SD. http://www.seedland.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Seedland&Category_Code=WGF-SORG

 

[Josh Anderson]

SD i was looking at the same stuff. just hoping it will work. im only going to plant like a 1/4 acre or half acre

 

[SD51555]

I'm waiting a little bit to see where I'm going to plant mine. I'm not doing a pure stand. It may go into my pumpkin patch if that doesn't take. It may go into my soybean patch if that doesn't take. I'm really hoping to just get a big enough sample and a camera on it to see if deer will eat it on my place.

I'm hoping with the shorter maturity, I can wait until mid June to decide where it's going. The first round of plots are going to be high risk.

 

[wiscwhip]

SD, you should be totally fine in mid-June. One way to get maximum usage later in the season is if you take the longest maturity date for your variety and subtract that number from the date of first frost for your area. That will give you the approximate latest planting date for that plot. Given the median date of first frost is Sept 22nd for Bemidji and WGF sorghum's 50 day average maturity, plus an error factor of about 10 days(give or take), you could plant as late as the weekend of July 26th and your plants would mature just before first frost. This might also keep some birds off of the seeds, as some of the really early migrators will have already moved on.

 

[wiscwhip]

We purchased our falcata alfalfa seed from Millborn Seed. I don't remember who I talked to over there, but he was very friendly and knowledgeable.

 

[SD51555]

I just got some prices back from Jason over there. I talked to him last year about the plan I had. Lots of good help from him. I'll have to get him on the phone to discuss what kind of sorghum they have. I wanna make sure I don't end up with some kind of bird blend that isn't even on the radar of deer.

 

[bwoods11]

We planted some sorghum into a two acre clover plot last year. We just happened to get some from a friend and our neighbor drilled it into the clover. We planted it way too early according to most people, about the middle of June.

When it grew, about 5 feet tall, we noticed a tremendous increase in daylight usage of the plot. I think it's a security issue. Never noticed any browsing of it though. We found beds in it and kicked up deer every time we went through it. This plot never got much daylight usage until late November. Once the heads ripened, the turkey tore it up. Deer usage continued into and through rifle season. 4 of our young members harvested doe in that field.

We plan to use it again this year but plant it later. IIRC, we planted two pounds of seed total. This ws on our property in SW PA. I can't say how it will do on wet soil though. Ours is on a well drained hillside.

Deer and pheasant use my sorghum. I don't think the deer feed in if much but they like it as cover and will bed in it!