Sudan Grass for Sheep

[Johnson]

Is Sudan Grass fine for sheep (Barbados)? While I realize that alfalfa is the best, I came across some Sudan Grass bales for a third of the price of alfalfa.

[Bill Fosher]

I'd question the assertion that alfalfa is best, as it can be too high in protein and too low in energy.

 

I don't know about straight Sudan grass, but I have had very good luck with brown midrib sorghum-Sudan Grass hybrids. I am currently fattening lambs on it, and it is just about an ideal stand-alone lamb finishing ration: 13 percent protein and 65 percent TDN.

 

Here's a photo of the crop being mowed. To give a sense of scale, the rear wheels of the tractor are a little more than six feet tall.

 

[bcnewe2]

Wow

that's some height there!

I don't feed alfala even here in CO. I was brought up out east where alfala was to hot for my hair sheep.

[Bill Fosher]

Alfalfa can be a very good feedstuff, but it's probably best reserved for ewes in late gestation, heavy milkers, and fast-growing lambs. But of course, you can't generalize about any forage. You really need to take forage samples and have it tested. I think it costs about $17 per test; some land-grant universities will do it for free, or at least they used to.

 

At the dairy farm where I work, we made some alfalfa that's about 24 percent protein this summer, and some that is as low as 18 percent. You'd be hard pressed to tell which is which by looking.

 

Here in New England, I can't imagine trying to get sorghum-Sudangrass dry enough to bale for dry hay. If you look closely, you can see a little mist behind the mower conditioner. It took two hot, windy days and two passes with a tedder just to get this stuff dry enough to make decent silage, and as I feed it out these days it is still like unwrapping an ice cube. But the lambs love it and are growing like gangbusters.

[Johnson]

Wow, look how tall that stuff gets.

 

It's hot and dry here, it doesn't take long to dry anything during summer.

 

Is there anything wrong with letting sheep free graze on a field of Sudan Grass all winter? I don't have farm equipment.

 

Looking in the local seed store catalog they carry five strains of seeds. Trudan 8, Sordan 79, Sucrosorgo 405, NK-300, Hegari.

 

 

Another thing, how does a seed drill work? I get the part of how it spaces seeds with a slotted disc. Does it dig a furrow, drop a seed, then cover it? Or is there an actual drill (hence the name)?

[denice]

Not sure what part of the country you are in but in NE, SD ect. there is quite a bit of sorghum sudan grown for livestock feed. Some is baled, cut for silage, some left to be grazed. They always do testing before harvest there because summers can be very hot and dry and the lower leaves concentrate minerals I believe and can be toxic to the livestock. I can't recall now if it is nitrogen or exactly what but there are always stories of folks going out and feeding a bunch of cattle and come back the next day to find 1/2 the herd dead. So check into that with the local large animal vet or other folks. Bill probably knows.

[Bill Fosher]

Sorghum-Sudan can become toxic if it is frosted, and when it is less than 18 inches tall. It concentrates prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) when under stress.

 

I grazed the regrowth on the field shown in the picture when the crop was about 24 inches tall. The lambs loved it, but they did not eat the stems. Our grazing was cut short by a killing frost in October. You need to strip graze it to keep them from trampling too much and wasting it.

 

It is a very heavy feeder, and I understand that it can become toxic if stressed by lack of nitrogen or rainfall. So it's not a crop to be taken lightly. Around here it is usually used as an emergency forage. I planted it when a spring pasture seeding failed. We took 39 round bales off 7 acres, and grazed 100 lambs for 35 days on it. Could have probably gone another 15 days but for the frost.