Hopefully the deer will find those pumpkins in October. I had to smash one open to get their attention, but then they wiped them out in short order. Also, it is worth noting that migrating blackbirds really like sorghum, so unless you see what is actually eating it, you may be misled to think the deer are loving it when it is really just blackbirds. Good luck.

Be sure if you read this that you realize he is using "forage sorghum". This stuff grows much taller than the grain sorghum I am planting. Thanks for the comment.

@@bill-winke Oh yes, I'm an old rookie- but the point was for screening, it worked out, grew very tall, planted it in May on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

They can get a taste for something over time. I always thought that the deer liked the ripe heads of sunflowers. I have never tried them but that is what I had heard. I didn't know they ate the plant. I think you will like sorghum as an option.

Thanks. Much appreciated. Have a great day.

Steve, it will definitely work for a while at least - until the deer figure out that the seed heads are really tasty when the seeds are filling in September. If you can get sorghum past that stage (referred to as the dough stage) you will have food all fall. Good luck.

@bill-winke ok thanks it's worth a try for sure.

Thanks Edward. Have a great day.

Good information. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.

That is awesome. Please let us know how the deer respond to it this fall. I appreciate it.

Man, that stinks. Eventually, it has to end, but I understand the disappointment and the wasted time/money. Good luck.

We're in the same boat. I live in an area that has consistent 100° days from June through September with no rain.

I have planted it thick before and it did OK. If you have a good year for moisture and put on a good bit of nitrogen you may be fine this year. Possibly the heads won't produce as much seed per plant because of the competition for nutrients and moisture. I would scale back to the recommended rates (up to 10 pounds per acre) if you do it again. Let us know how it turns out. Good luck.

@bill-winke Thanks for the response. I was wondering about nitrogen, and yes we are getting plenty of moisture so far thanks again

But won't the native grass overtake the sorghum and pull the moisture and nutrients during the summer?

You just need to know how long they have been sitting around. The seed I got from seed dealers was fine. The stuff I got from the conservation groups was questionable. If it has only been on the shelf in a dry area for a year you should be OK. That's the way I will treat it next year. Just use seed I know hasn't been sitting around for several years.

Thanks for the comment. Yes, I would say the deer were locked on the beans. If sorghum had been grown separately I think they would have paid more attention to it. Kind of like turnips, I think sorghum is an acquired taste for the deer.

I agree. I think that is a great combination. Let us know how it works.

That is another great feature of sorghum. It does better on dry ridge fields than corn or beans.

It has worked here on this farm. This year will be another good test with a different variety of sorghum that promises to be even more attractive to the deer. Good luck.

Yes, that is the problem. In my experience, if the sorghum gets a good headstart it will be OK even with a little grass. Problems come when the grass is already started when you plant the sorghum. I will do an update in a couple weeks.

There are a couple of possible problems with that approach. I would not spray with 2,4-D before planting clover as it does have a small residual effect unless you do it at least two weeks before planting. Second, I am not sure 2,4-DB is OK sprayed over standing sorghum. It probably is, but I would guess that it will set the sorghum back. I would rather just let things go without a further herbicide application or I would skip the clover then you can spray with dicamba herbicide to kill any broadleaf weeds later without effecting the sorghum. Good luck.

Yes, the grass is the problem. To combat, I try to spray the area to kill everything off right at the time I plant so that the sorghum has a jump start on the weeds. That usually is enough to get it up and competing. I have read that sorghum needs about three weeks without heavy weed competition and then it can more or less fend for itself. That has worked for me in the past. Good luck.

I don't know anything about the WGF but yes, milo and sorghum are the same thing. I will follow-up later in the summer. My main issue with sorghum is the fact that I am not aware of a good way to remove grass that comes up after the sorghum/milo comes out of the ground. Since the crop is in the grass family, anything that removes grass (herbicides) will kill the sorghum and to my knowledge there are no "glyphosate tolerant" sorghum/milo varieties. I am sure the big farmers in the great plains where sorghum is a very common crop have this down pat, but for the small food plotter, the weed control is the main challenge. Good luck.

I don't think I would go past about June 10th, roughly. It is definitely too late now. The plants won't make seed before the first frost.

I suppose it depends on your goals. If you want bedding, then the grass is fine, but if you want a food source primarily, you should try to spray to wipe out all the competition right before you plant so the sorghum has the best possible head start. If you want to save it now, you will need to find some kind of system to weed between the rows - kind of like a narrow garden tiller. Otherwise, there is no good solution that I know of. Good luck.

Travis, I do think that would work. I also think that if you planted the sorghum into a plot that you also drilled (or broadcast) to soybeans would work. Just keep the sorghum on 30 inch rows then. The plant doesn't get tall enough to block all the sun the way corn does, so it could work well for double cropping. I will play with that next year. But this year, I did plant 600 pumpkins into my sorghum plots with the hopes that they will find enough sunlight to do well within those plots. I will update on whether this worked later this summer. But yes, I think double cropping would work well with sorghum if done in the right way. Good luck.

@@bill-winke experimentation = new knowledge is how I justify my ideas. Appreciate you

The deer have to figure out what it is if they haven't seen it before, but the deer here definitely ate it in November through December until it was gone. They did seem to favor it over corn here. The grain sorghum grows about mid-chest high (the seed head is on top) and forage sorghum grows about 8 or 9 feet high (seed head on the top). So you definitely want to make sure you are getting grain sorghum and not forage sorghum. It takes roughly the same fertilizer as corn. Good luck.

That is a great tip. Thanks.

Nic, that is the 8 foot (G8 from PH Outdoors): www.ph-outdoors.com/g-series-no-till-drill-1 They also make other sizes. I think they still sell a "tow kit" that would allow you to pull a five foot drill with a small tractor rather than lifting it with the three-point hitch. I have an 80 hp tractor (JD 5085E). With the loader it is front-heavy enough to carry the eight foot drill full of seed up the slope on this farm. I have run the 8 footer on smaller tractors, but you often have to use the brakes to help "steer" the tractor when the front end gets light. With a smaller tractor, you can also either put on front weights or fill the bucket with dirt first (if it has a loader) to keep the front down. Have a great day.

It's about all they sell around here!

Yes. I do think so. And I think if you planted it on 30 inch rows you could easily seed other crops into the same plot, such as beans in the spring and brassicas in the summer.

@bill-winke that's a pretty creative idea Bill! Getting some late beans in this weekend on the new farm and if they all get eaten I figure I'll have a clean slate for fall plots.

Sounds like you need a fence.

I agree. I have planted hundreds of acres of sorghum over the years. On one farm I co-owned in the late 90s I planted 300 acres one year! Half was grain sorghum and half forage sorghum (the tall stuff). The deer density was really high there and they wiped out the grain sorghum in September and October and then started on the forage sorghum by actually reaching up and breaking the stalk off with their mouths! I used a six row planted and put three hoppers into grain and three into forage and then went back and forth so there were six rows of grain next to six rows of forage. It worked really well and made a perfect field for sneaking in and out. With a little wind, I could walk right past the deer by using the middle of the forage sorghum rows. That farm was quite an education when it came to deer! Good luck.

@@nicschaalma3508 I do... But don't want to spend the money or energy to put one up!

Man, that stinks. That is another upside for sorghum. It is pretty drought hardy compared to most stuff - even corn. I hope you get some rain soon.

That has been my experience also. The deer won't touch it during the summer. I have seen issues in really high densities where they wiped out the seed heads in late September when the seeds started to form and get "doughy". To combat that, I would also plant forage sorghum along with the grain sorghum so the deer couldn't easily reach it and the heads (though not as big as the grain forage heads) made it through until later in the season. Interesting challenge when dealing with high deer numbers. Have a great day.

@@bill-winke one year i had a complete failure of my spring planting so i drilled sorghum sudan in late June. It got 7 ft tall and deer bedded in it and stood on hind legs to eat the seeds. Being from north Africa, this stuff can deal with the heat. You can drill it deep to get to moisture.

Rich, it might work better because the sorghum seed is smaller than corn so it is easier to get good seed to soil contact and germination. But anytime you just put a seed on top of the ground you need the right conditions for that work - even really small seeds like clover and turnips need good rains to germinate when thrown on top of the ground. It is definitely worth a try, but it would work better if you are able to till up the ground even a little bit to get the seed embedded slightly. Good luck.

Go for it then. Start your channel.

@@bill-winke I have to work for a living.. while you and your kids play!Plat!! Fact

@@bill-winke but I guarantee you I'm a better hunter bye a mile....anyone can hunt deer when there not pressured!! Fact