Calibre BMR Forage Sorghum

Product Description

• Seed Agronomy Table

  Seeding Rate - Dryland (kg/ha)

  4-8

  Seeding Rate - High Rainfall/Irrigation (kg/ha)

  15-20

  Maturity

  Medium

  Leaf Type

  Medium

• Seed Treatment

  Enhanced or Standard

• Enterprises For This Seed

  Beef and Sheep

  Dairy

  Silage and Hay

  Viticulture and Horticulture

• Strengths

  Fast establishing autumn-spring growing fodder crop with high feeding value High leaf to stem ratio Opportunities for grazing/silage/hay production

• Limitations

  Susceptible to pugging; avoid grazing if waterlogged - regrowth will be compromised

• Plant Description
  Sudan Grass and Sudan x Sudan Hybrids

  Suitable for repeated, heavy grazing with good recovery between grazing. Potential for a high dry matter yield. Best grazed at around one metre in height. Early maturing types require strict grazing management in order to maximise both their fodder yield and feed quality.

  Sorghum Hybrid

  Limited recovery from grazing. High forage yield combined with high grain content. Developed specifically for the silage industry.

  Sweet Sorghum Hybrids

  Grazing, hay or silage - coarse stemmed varieties for pit silage, narrow stemmed varieties for round bale silage. Late-flowering cultivars for standover grazing into autumn. Slow recovery from grazing (poor regrowth). Tall late flowering types with thick stems and high sugar content are most suitable for standover feed into the autumn-winter. Prussic acid levels are sometimes high. However, contemporary varieties have lower levels of prussic acid than older varieties and prussic acid is usually only a concern in drought years when plants are stressed. Tall early flowering types with fine stems, have lower prussic acid and can be managed for silage by allowing them to set seed but harvest them when the seeds are soft. Fine-stemmed cultivars can be used in both pit and round bale silage. Mainly used for standover feed into autumn-winter, or silage Preferred planting time December to January.

  BMR Sorghum x Sweet Sorghum

  Brown midrib varieties contain less lignin and have higher digestibility. May be subject to lodging. Graze at 1 to 1.2 metres as with other varieties.

• Pasture Type And Use

  Various species and their hybrids are grown as forage for livestock production or for hay or silage conservation. Coarse-stemmed varieties are not suitable for round bale silage production. The various types of hybrids have different agronomic features and uses.

• Temperature

  Sow when the soil temperature is 16°C and rising for optimal establishment

• Management
  Grazing/Cutting

  Tolerant of heavy grazing with coarse stems remaining unless grazed early. Commence grazing when plants have reached 1 to 1.5 metres in height. Slashing after grazing will promote even regrowth. Should not be grazed below 15 centimetres if good regrowth is expected. Can expect 4 or more grazings under ideal conditions.

  Ability to Spread

  Low.

• Animal Production
  Feeding Value

  Nutritive value depends greatly on soil fertility or the amount of fertiliser applied, and on grazing management where best results are achieved with a grazing height of 1 to 1.2 m. At this height, crude protein levels could be as high as 18 per cent with energy levels of 8.8 to 9.5 megajoules per kilogram dry matter.

  Palatability

  Highly palatable and digestible prior to flowering.

  Production Potential

  Generally, live weight gains vary between 0.5 to 1 kilogram per head per day depending on plant height and leafiness.

  Livestock Disorders/Toxicity

  Low level prussic acid risk, especially in young stressed regrowth during a dry spell. Having supplement blocks containing sulphur available will reduce the risk of prussic acid poisoning. Nitrate poisoning can occur when grown on fertile soils containing high levels of nitrogen and when plants are stressed by dry conditions or frost.

• Establishment Guarantee

  At S&W Seed Company Australia we're so confident about our seed genetics and seed quality, we will replace seed at half the original purchase price if it fails to establish satisfactorily in the first thirty days* Read more