BMR Beats the Weather

With brown midrib sorghum-sudangrass, producers get quality forage with various options for harvest.

Growers who plant SS-220 report great results when feeding it to their cattle.

Beef and dairy producers in western Virginia say brown midrib sorghum-sudangrass is a perfect fit for their area. And they report that SS-220, a brown midrib hybrid variety offered by Southern States, is a favorite.

Farming in the valley between the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah mountain ranges, growers have a hard time getting enough rain-free days to dry forage for baling, but SS-220 BMR offers producers alternative ways to harvest. It may be grazed, ensiled, greenchopped, or baled at high moisture or conventionally, if weather permits.

Tommy Bare of Rockbridge Baths and Scott Heslep of Brownsburg both reported success with feeding their Angus cows on SS-220 BMR. Bare baled at 60% moisture and wet-wrapped it, and has also cut 6-foot tall stalks and stored them in plastic bags. Heslep has round-baled his and chopped it for silage.

The reason cattle do so well on the brown midrib hybrid, according to Howard Tabor, Southern States' product manager for SS-220 BMR, is because of its low lignin content--and its feed value is competitive with that of corn silage.

"In this case, quality trumps quantity," Tabor says. Because it's highly palatable and digestible, cattle clean up the feed bunk and get 100% of the nutrients so they produce as much or more milk, beef or average daily gain even with less feed. He adds that the lower lignin content allows bales to be wrapped more tightly.

Tabor says SS-220 BMR is adapted throughout the South and Southeast wherever sorghum-sudangrasses and pearl millets are grown. Ideal planting time is whenever soil temperatures rise above 60° to 65° F., generally in early to mid-May. But SS-220 BMR may be planted as late as Aug. 1, if there is adequate moisture. It takes about 35 days from the date of planting for plants to get tall enough to graze or for a cutting of hay or silage.

Bare likes SS-220 BMR as a rotation crop. "After we harvest corn, a lot of residue is left on the ground," he explains. "Planting brown midrib sorghum gives us time to work that residue into the soil."

Heslep says it is important to up the seeding rate to 50 pounds per acre, otherwise the stalks get too thick and are hard to cure.

Tabor recommends a preplant application of 125 pounds of nitrogen per acre, along with appropriate amounts of phosphorus and potash. For highest yields, he recommends sidedress applications of 25 to 50 pounds of nitrogen after each cutting.

Some producers say SS-220 BMR is less expensive to grow than corn because of lower seed costs and lowerexpenses for fertilizer and herbicide. The fast-growing crop shades out most weeds before they have a chance to compete.

For more information on SS-220, see your Southern States retailer.