ohiogoatgirl
Well-known member
It's becoming all the rage for cover crop mixes and catching on quickly with grazers. It's a little pricey seed but the rate of growth, and regrowth, and high protein content :mrgreen: The articles talk about grazing it with cows, sheep, or goats. But I'm thinking small scale you could do a couple beds and stagger plantings then stagger harvesting each bed. Just gathering the tops of the plants as it said to let the animals graze it to. It looks fairly straight stemmed so I imagine it would be pretty easy to lay out and tie into bundles for storing.
In northern climates it will winter kill and the season isn't long enough for it to go to seed. So a lot of us wouldn't have to worry about it taking over.
https://www.progressiveforage.com/forag ... unn%20hemp.
Photo 1 Richard Petcher stands next to sunn hemp that is nearly 8 feet tall 60 days after establishment.
"With nitrogen levels being between 25% and 30% and protein between 22% and 28%, it can be a very nutritious forage, Petcher says."
“The crop grows very fast and will reach up to 8 feet in 60 days if you allow it,” Heatwole says. “My advice is to not wait too long before you start grazing it and turn the herd out when the crop is about knee-height.”
Here is a video from Green Cover Seed. They put out tons of videos on their test plots talking about how the different mixes did or comparing varieties etc. Highly recommend.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDRHA6PRi8k[/youtube]
In northern climates it will winter kill and the season isn't long enough for it to go to seed. So a lot of us wouldn't have to worry about it taking over.
https://www.progressiveforage.com/forag ... unn%20hemp.
Photo 1 Richard Petcher stands next to sunn hemp that is nearly 8 feet tall 60 days after establishment.
"With nitrogen levels being between 25% and 30% and protein between 22% and 28%, it can be a very nutritious forage, Petcher says."
“The crop grows very fast and will reach up to 8 feet in 60 days if you allow it,” Heatwole says. “My advice is to not wait too long before you start grazing it and turn the herd out when the crop is about knee-height.”
Here is a video from Green Cover Seed. They put out tons of videos on their test plots talking about how the different mixes did or comparing varieties etc. Highly recommend.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDRHA6PRi8k[/youtube]
