Sorghum: An Alternative for Animal Feed in Regenerative Agriculture
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ม.ค. 2024
- Learn about the benefits of using sorghum as an alternative feed for animals in regenerative agriculture. This sustainable and nutritious option can help improve soil health and support a more eco-friendly farming system. Watch now to discover the potential of sorghum in animal feed production!
I live in Kansas and we have been growing sorghum for a long time. I have to correct some of the this guys statements. Sorghum doesn’t have the highest protein content. Wheat and Triticale have a higher content up to 14%. A lot of the old open pollinated corns also have a higher protein content. Second, if you are planting grain sorghum, in 30 inch rows, make sure to give that at least 4 inches of spacing. In dry environments with less that 15 inches of rain a year, space it out more. It absolutely will burn up if you space it too close. Sorghum Sudan grass is a different story. Plant that thick. Thirdly, weed control is more difficult and more expensive in sorghum than corn. It is just that way because sorghum takes longer to canopy and shade the ground.
It makes good bread and can also be popped like popcorn. Livestock prefer grazing on the stalks of sorghum over corn.
Can it grows on sandy soil (90% silicate)
@@BennixI think it should. I grow it in the Kansas Sandhills which are mostly sand, although not that extreme. I would give it some good compost. You will probably have to keep watering it the first several years because water leaches in sand really bad. You may want to plant some cow peas with it as well.
The Sorghum should do the heavy the lifting of producing Soil Organic Matter.
Thanks for adding these tidbits in I grow it here in western NY and it does great have been experimenting with piping it like you mentioned like popcorn and making a flour also feeding the excess to our chickens in the way of soaked whole grains. Added shell peas to that mix last year and looking to add sunflower in the future. Thanks again and hope 24 is prosperous for you.
I use grain sorghum as whole plant silage for finishing beef cattle , chopped at 60 to 65% moisture planted on 11 inch rows at 10 lb per acre n makes about 10-12 ton per acre
Good to see another Kansan out in the wilds of the internet. Greetings from Cowley County!
Sorghum stem has been used as animal feed in India for over 1000+ years. Stem can be given as green feed as well as dry feed and can be stored for a long time. It needs only little rainfall during sowing and can be grown into nutrient rich food.
In egypt as well
Isn't Sorghum toxic? It has to be used when it gets a certain height. Otherwise you will poison the animals. That is when it is used as fodder.
I eat sorghum "Rotti" daily, ( North Karnataka, South India )
Awesome! I love roti. I had an Indian friend from Fiji when I was in 5th grade. Her mom made delicious roti.
In much of Africa actually
Because it has been forced to be illegal hemp is never mentioned but blows all these other grains away for ease of harvest, highest protein, and much more.
This is absolutely true. As a homesteader, one of the bigger slaps in the face was realizing I could become sustainable on so many things with an acre of Cannabis plants. It is excellent feed, building and clothing material. I pray for decriminalization
@@MikeM-qy9zz Yes it's also the HEALTHIEST poultry feed. It's truly why we cannot be sustainable at permaculture.
It’s legal now in most states and can grow without a lot of water or fertilizer and will grow most anywhere
@@inharmonywithearth9982here in Arkansas the farmers grew a bird resistant grain variety. Not sure if it was Milo or another grain. But it was grown for chicken feed. And surprise! Chickens did not want to eat it.
blows away is a huge over statement . put the pipe down cheech , hemp uses 2x the water of sorgum
In the 1990's and earlier Milo Sorghum was grown as animal feed commonly. Nobody really ate it as a food grain itself. Then someone started marketing it to urbanites as a "superfood" and priced it out of the animal feed market. Within a few years it largely disappeared, with corn and soy meal becoming the more common animal feed.
Weird to see modern farmers not remembering it or thinking it's somehow a new idea to use it as animal feed. One of these days people will suddenly remember that Buckwheat is a thing, too.
Buckwheat is the most healthy morning food
I remember when Milo was in the top 3 in the market commentary. We can't really grow it here for grain. We do raise a lot of sorghum sudan hybrid for hay and grazing.
Buckwheat, oats and sorghum are awesome for regenerating my soil.
I love the buckwheat flowers in the garden, and so do pollinators; but sadly, it makes me light sensitive, so I cannot eat it. Major bummer, I originally bought the seed for micro greens. The local seed library gladly took it off my hands, and it flew off their shelves here in Northern AZ. If you can have it, it is pretty great. God bless!
@@bekabeka71eggs are healthier than buckwheat.
I am from Africa and yes sorghum is really great.
As an African, am wondering how they are just realizing this. 😂😂😂
As a kid in Missouri there were massive fields grown exclusively for fodder. It's only recently that it fell out of favor in replaced by corn and soy meal. Few things grow as well or make as much tonnage per acre. Triticale is another fine fogger crop.
Hemp is another crop that provides great nutrition for animals and people as well
We love it but some states it's still illegal to feed to livestock. We hope that changes soon
@@lpmoron6258 if the THC levels are too high, the state government will make you destroy the crop by burying it under.
Hemp strips soil of nutrients. The high yields that are so highly publicized only happen for the first year or three hemp is planted in a new field. After that, outputs fall off significantly or even sharply with out heavy fertilizer application. Hemp's deep drawdown of soil is, however, very useful when it comes to de-contaminating polluted soils. It's commonly planted in soil that has been too badly polluted to raise food crops. The hemp is harvested and incinerated in special facilities that capture the toxins out of the smoke and ash.
And rope, and cloth, and paper...
The only reason hemp is illegal is because William Randolf Hearst needed to sell timber for paper and some DOJ head needed political points.
@@MichaelWilliams-ph4ri Former farmer here, hemp strips soil of nutrients. The real reason hemp never achieved widespread production is because you get a couple good years when you first plant it in a new field then yields drop off steeply if you don't fertilize the field increasingly heavily. Farmers in colonial times had to rotate hemp in their fields and keep clearing forests to make fields for hemp or they would have ended up with a sterile dust bowl for a farm. If you spend tons of money on petrochemical fertilizer, you can get good yields from hemp, and hemp products are currently a pricey fad but all the other crops and plants that hemp is claimed to be able to replace don't take near the fertilizer or water to produce the same amount of usable fibers/material.
One current use for hemp that is working very well is cleaning toxic chemicals out of contaminated soil. Because hemp does such a thorough job striping the soil, it's being used to remediated large areas that aren't quite contaminated enough to dig the dirt up and run it through a burner but too contaminated to ever let any people back in there. The hemp is planted and fertilized, cut down and burned and the smoke and ash from the incinerator are treated to capture all the toxins. Several years of this may be required to clean up a really contaminated site but it works really well and is way cheaper than the other cleanup methods.
Over the years I’ve fed a fair amount of Milo (Sorghum grain) to both cattle and hogs. I worked well ground for the hogs at a discount to Corn. For the cattle, even at a price discount, it was nowhere near as efficient as either steam rolled Barley or Corn. One other small item was that the neighbors near a cattle feedyard being fed Milo complained more about the odor in the winter than one being fed either of the other two grains. I don’t know why, but it just did..
Felt happy when I saw your video! I always learn one or two things each time I watch your videos. Great information!!!
Have we been looking for alternatives to corn? CORN has been the alternative. It's time to grow-back to the basics.
I bought sorghum seed this year. I eager to see how it does.
Growing it mostly for my chickens.
If youre promoting regenerative ag stop showing so many images of glyphosate sprayers.
Great video thanks. Watching from Portugal.
I had sorghum Sudan grass seed in pasture seed mix, but didn't know it was there until a couple seasons later, when I rototilled an area that turned into a compost pile & planted corn (that never grew) & other veggies. But had a beautiful crop of sorghum Sudan grass that was over 6' mostly. The goat's & cow's loved the small patch I grew.
Sorghum is also the base for Chinese Baijiu, the single best selling liquor in the world. The variety of flavors they produce in sorghum based liquor in China is as varied as what we make from corn in the US.
Thank you for this video. I've said this for years!!!!!!!!
Salam, thanks for your time and support for this video it’s really been productive and successful lesson.❤❤❤❤
I got sweet sorghum and amaranth seeds recently, just got to decide where to plant them.
Just wanted top say thank you for this educational information. Just purchased some Sorghum to grow myself. I raise chickens and this will be a great alternative food for me and them.
We tried sorghum syrup this year and it was great! Hope your chickens love it
I can grow sorghum, but have failed year after year to grow corn... It is my go to now, I bought seed for rox orange syrup sorghum for sweets as well as a different one for the grain. I pray they do not start tinkering with the genetics. Great video, I didn't know about the toxin, so THANK YOU FOR THE HEADS UP!! I will research it further. God bless!
Oh, they've been "tinkering" with the genetics decades ago! I really H.A.T.E. when they mess up what GOD created!
I looked up the protein values and oats has 11-15% which is higher than this video stated!
We love it, great feed grain for wildlife food plots as well. I just love the way it looks, especially after it matures.
Sorghum also known as Great Millet is one among the family of millets. You can try other millets as well like Little Millet, Foxtail Millet, Barnyad Millet, Kodo Millet(Cow Grass) and Brown Top Millet.
I'm planning on planting some for my chickens this year. 😊
Sorghum has been used as fodder in Australia for many decades. It makes sense given how dry many parts of the country are. As for widespread use in the USA, it comes down to seed sales. If big companies make money on new seed varieties, they are more inclined to sell and safeguard them. That also provides incentive to downplay the benefits of other varieties and species.
I watched a vid of a very small farmer with 4 cows, high up in the mountains of Turkey.
he fed his cows sprouted barley. He grew big mats of it, say 1 and a half feet by three feet.
Entire dairy herds are bring fed that way. Green feed means a higher butterfat content and so on. I was taught grain is like candy is to kids. the less the better. th-cam.com/video/PKXwkVhK3wc/w-d-xo.html
thanks 4 sharing info
love this video, very informative
my dad when he planted corn for chopping would throw a handful of sorghum in with the corn seed it made beautiful silage
Why all those video pictures showing all that spraying of commercial fertilizer and / or insecticides ? More of the same crap !!! On a positive note- I remember as a boy in Indiana having sorghum syrup to spread on a piece of bread. Yummy !!!!
Why are we knocking on corn so much? There are many heritage varieties that are still nutritious and great for soil. Also corn is native to the Americas and can be planted using the 3 or 7 sisters method
Please name a couple varieties of good corn. I want to find one that grows well in central florida
Good to know...but, sorghum isn't new to the South. We've been growing it and making sorghum molasses and silage with it for hundreds of years.
Yes we have🤗
Problem is, round-up is sprayed now to dry it for harvest
Sprayed on oats, rice , wheat, and other grains to make it die instead of waiting for natural ripening so they can rush the harvest. Also sprayed on annual hay to make it dry faster before baling and on potato fields and many tropical fruits so they will turn color in time for the fruit buyers. It's not biodegradable and kills plants by hormone disruption. We use the same hormones and hormone functions as plants. No wonder our bodies are all contaminated with it and it has to be the reason for the pandemic of human gender identity confusion.
Yes round up is sprayed on the hay, all the grain, the potato tops, some of the fruits like mango to make it die before harvest so it will ripen /dry faster
@@inharmonywithearth9982
And that's why people are so sick.
@@paulawaldrep5286 herbicide toxns are not biodegradable and they kill plants by hormone disruption agents. That's why everyone is having hormone problems causing gender identity problems and cells growing cancerous in my opinion.
Sorghum was always grown on marginal or swampy land. Grows quick and cows love it. Grows 15 feet high lol. Hard on haybine.. and baler
Thank you #savesoil #Consciousplanet
I’m watching this because I’m floored that this is ‘news’.
We’ve been feeding stock in Australia sorghum for at least 70+ years. At least.
And the rest of the world, yeah, they’ve been doing this too.
This is so not news 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Does sweet sorghum silage require addition of molases?
I planned a paper in agriculture class if I continued and how it makes more sugar for fuel and food and minerals.
Lets also add that certain varieties of sorghum can be popped like popcorn.
Will do!
That stuff looks delicious
I raised sorghum last year for the first time when's the mixed results. Crop looked great but yield was not what I thought it should have been. I'm going to try again this year and add a little more nitrogen, hopefully that will help.
Check out the full video. Nitrogen not needed
@@RegenerativeFarmersofAmerica I thought in video it said that Milo responded well to nitrogen. I could be wrong
Nutritional facts show different weights: Large, medium and small ear. Calories will also change if the weight changes.
Nice video
That's interesting about how frost temps causes it to be poisonous to animals, I had no idea but I am glad I do now because I am in a cold climate! I did grow a small amount of sorghum & feed it to my cows last year with no issues. How is it as a feed for sheep?
The prussic acid is very rare even in stressed situations and if it does produce prussic acid it evaporates soon after it is cut from the roots. The hay will always be safe due to drying. One of the major reasons for prussic acid production is when it is sprayed with weed killer in the pasture. This stresses the plant and forces it to produce it as it dies still attached to roots. Johnson grass is the relative that is most often sprayed with weed killer because of fear Mongering by Monsanto/Syngenta/ Bayer giving misinformation to promote herbicide sales.
in my experience sheep and goats are pretty comparable to one another. bovines, like cows, can have finicky digestive systems, so if a cow can eat it, then a sheep and goat definitely be just fine. Unless it's a specialized breed, you should be able to feed one the same that you would the other. The only real difference is when an animal is reared for milk, they usually need a little more oomph
I will try to grow sorghum for my gamefowl
We are here in Middle East trapped with corn importation while the sorghum grows nicely on the rainy season with nothing to add such fertilizers or constant irrigations
Even the dry Sorghum stover after removing the seeds is highly nutritious. It is one of the best dry fodder available on planet for Cattle. Generally other dry fodders wont have the nutrition what sorghum has.
How to stock for a months before run out to feed
🎉I definitely agree
i think most peoplewould disagree on the cp comments my understanding is that its 90% value of corn on energy side but most importantly- tough outer hull is not digestible even by ruminants so if you dont have a grinder/ mixer- you really cant use it for feed we mix it in about 10% when we plant warm seasons for veg state- no intent for grain
The regeneration model of farming is great if you get rain and are in a warm enough climate to grow sorghum. Dry inland areas aren’t as good.
great info but if your sorghum lodges (falls over) mice and voles happily strip it and deer will eat it when young and green/tender leaves
I’m pretty sure this is called haygrazer…I could be wrong but we’ve bought bales of sorghum and the feed store calls it haygrazer. My animals don’t prefer it. They like costal Bermuda and of course alfalfa I would compare it to a bale of field hay…bc it’s usually brown. My animals only eat it when it’s purple. It’s most often sold as round bales in my area. I’m in Centeral Texas.
Can we plant this Sorghum on 90% sandy land (silicate)
Probably would struggle to grow in sand
The best animal feed, is the food the animal would eat if human did not interfere, for herbivores it would be a variety of free growing plants and for meat eaters it is meat and for omnivores it's a variety of natural growing plants and meat that are eating natural foods.
Sorghum syrup on cornbread ❤😋
How much acerage would you need to grow any significant amount of sorgum
1 acre = 7000lbs
Great crop but the tannins hurt the feed value. If you can get a white sorghum its near corn in feed value BUT in animal feed you need to adjust vitamin levels as it lacks the Vit A levels of corn and youll have health problems with standard animal mineral supplements which all assume corn soy rations.
The comment before yours points out that sorghum is a standard animal feed in Australia and elsewhere, so it sounds like a US corn-lobby problem
@@williamchamberlain2263 what do we do to get these big corporations from lying to us?
Does it really kill other plants around it? I was always told only to grow it where you never want anything else to grow
Allelopathic properties are overrated. Herbicide companies use that fearmongering tactic to encourage more weed control. Sorghum crop has to be weeded just as much as any other crop.
Oh it doesn't kill other plants that I have ever seen. The weeds were beautiful and Lucious through the rows of sorghum we planted.
Yeah in my yard they almlst act like little volunteer mother plants for some other weeds. So ibwas always confused. They taste good too
Thanks! I had began to wunder that actually. They say that about a few plants and ive seen other plants growing right next to them. Suxh a weird thing to make up
Grind it into flour, and you can make lovely bread
Where can sorghum be purchased at an affordable price in the US?
Any livestock feed store in 50 pound bags around 12 dollars.
@inharmonywithearth9982 Wow. That sounds almost like something I should've known. I sure will be surprised if the local feed store has it. Thank you so much for your reply!
Azure standard
@@lunabeta3516They can order it
Birds likes this crop. Rats even more crazy. Harvest asap or rain will ruin crop. Easy to grow but storage in dry condition is hard. In South korea this is highly profitable crop. Why? Harvesting season matches monsoon season.
A lot of people know it as milo, not sorghum.
Sorghum is what won us WWII, we were able to outproduce food to feed the people that ran our industrial plants and did the fighting.
Hemp won World War Two also they say.
Is sorghum and milo the same plant?
Yes
In the USA when grown for the seed grain it's called milo but when grown for the syrup rich stem its called sorghum.
this was reposted aftwr 4yrs. this plant grows fast even in dry climate, but it contains arsnic. hmm, grass volume verses toxicity
Actually it does not contain arsenic. If stressed out by being sprayed with weed killer or getting killed by a freeze it will sometimes produce prussic acid. Prussic acid evaporates as soon as the plant is severed from its roots so the hay will always be safe. The herbicide weed killer corporation wont tell you the truth because fear mongering sells chemicals and they want us to use them.
Live stock needs to eat what they eat in nature, not corn! This includes farm raised seafood.
I grow it by accident from my chickens food, i let them grow and its free chicken food.
Centuries ago india is growing them. And still.
Best part is if you feed sorghum it can be certified grasss fed
It looks like in my area I could get 2 harvests per year. Thats another reason it would be better than corn.
Well, doesn't sound like it's suitable in my area so no it won't be replacing corn.
It’s best in hot environments like in Africa
Nope, growing grains to specifically feed livestock maybe done in a technical regenerative way, but it's not efficient. I endeavor that regenerative systems only feed standing grasses and forbs, and rejected grain (bad quality) originally intended for human consumption.
stop expecting a monoculture diet to produce nutritionally healthy animals or plants.
cattle eat pasture that consist of forbs, legumes, grains, herbs and a total of over 300+ species of plants.
Depending on their age, they will eat different plants. e.g. the young calves like seeds, the adults prefer older dry grass and cows with upset stomachs will seek herbs and medicine plants.
Also pregnant cows will seek for herbs that ease labour pai. and enhance milk flow.
Or just graze pasture well
I have grown sorghum for my animals before and they will not eat it
👍🤝😇💐🙏
That's Bangladesh 2:26
Make it polyploidy
Hopefully we won’t screw it up too unless we already have
well corn is 3 months also. So I guess corn is fast growing.
GROW HEMP!!
Currently it is illegal in most states to feed hemp to livestock that are for consumption
Cannabis seed is the most nutritious of grains. It is a human right to grow healthy food.
@@RegenerativeFarmersofAmerica thats retareded and makes zero sense
@@awokenv7302avoiding problem with the law makes sense in any state.
Its been used in the south forever as cow feed .
Sorgum has been used as feed in china for centuries. What took you so long.
That's what they use in Mexico
Of course, it requires little water.
SORGHUM and all related crops in that family are bad for horses.
Worth knowing thanks!!!
It is written lots of places that under stress of severe drought or sudden early frost that family of grass can contain prussic acid. However since most of that information is coming from herbicide corporations they fail to mention that herbicide itself causes it to stress and produce prussic acid as its dying. Even more they usually fail to write that after mowing or cutting for hay prussic acid EVAPORATES in a few minutes! Further google research will even show this. I have had it on my pastures for 58 years and never had one incident of prussic acid but I do not spray herbicide on them.
Since prussic acid evaporates minutes after cutting or mowing it is harmless in hay . It is extremely rare for it to stress enough to produce prussic acid unless you are spraying it with herbicide in the pasture and animals are feeding on it while it's dying.
@inharmonywithearth9982 IF is a big word when it comes to an equine pet...better to avoid it, as there are numerous other good options for horses. Sorghum for goats, cows, pigs...awesome. just not for horses
@@carrieeaton5435 My horses and goats like variety. It's in the pasture among the other forage if they need it.
Lots of clips of conventional ag. Who's behind this channel?
Monsters
@@RegenerativeFarmersofAmerica 😆👏
Big corn does NOT want you to see this....
T-E-N-P-E-R-C-E-N-T-PR-O-T-E-I-N
It's filler.
We need to legalize feeding cannabis /hemp seed. It's highest in protein of any other grain.
Really pouring the poison chemicals on it.must be real healthy.
Sorghum makes lamb meat taste revolting.
To tell you the truth it always tastes and smells like old nasty rotten wool anyway.
7:17 Okay but most of fiddleing you are talking about is selective breeding.
Which is like the worst genetic tampering.
We could probably make with minimal changes if we just had less transgenic phobia. Because with transgenic manipulation you are only changing under a dozen base pairs.
Where selective breeding changles half all all base pairs.
6:29 If you thing you could never have a more useless job. You could be the person behind that rake.
Ill pass on a GMO Sorghum, not good for long term human health.....
Video literally discusses not using gmo
If you have enough water and soil fertility to grow corn, forget sorghum.
cattle need grass, not corn or sorghum.
BTW
Old school
North East Alabama
Sand Mountain
Sorghum syrup with morning biscuits was considered a staple...
Share croppers had too feed themselves