Summer Annuals

Annual warm-season grasses can be used as part of a year-round grazing system throughout the Midwest. With adequate moisture and fertility, they rapidly produce high-quality forage during late spring and summer when cool-season forages are dormant. In addition, warm-season annual grasses work well in rotation with row crops or as emergency pastures.

Forage Sorghums

FSG115 

A Brachytic Dwarf BMR forage sorghum that is excellent for producing high quality silage. FSG115 will reach soft dough in approximately 110 days and will produce high levels of starch, which contributes to silage digestibility and energy levels. The
brachytic dwarf trait reduces plant height and improves standability while maintaining leafiness.  This hybrid is an excellent fit for the demand of high-quality feed with superb tonnage.

Sorghum-Sudangrass

FSG470PPS

A versatile hybrid, Photoperiod Sensitive sorghum x sudangrass that can meet the nutritional needs of most classes of livestock. This hybrid can be used for grazing, hay, haylage, and green chop. FSG470 has a good leaf-to-stem ratio providing high quality and excellent production when combined with proper management.

FSG214

BMR6 Hybrid sorghum x sudangrass can be used for grazing, haylage, greenchop, and ground cover. It is well suited for use as emergency feed as it will be ready for grazing in 40 days, with adequate moisture. FSG214 has a 20% increase in digestibility compared to others due to the reduction in lignin with the BMR6 gene. 

Greengrazer V

Economical Sorghum Sudangrass. Regrowth after cutting is very fast. Planting at higher populations will result in finer stemmed forage. Wait until plants are 18″-36″ tall before grazing. Remove livestock once it has been grazed back to 8″. 

Sudan X Sudangrass

Piper Sudangrass

Piper Sudangrass can handle high cutting frequencies and is well adapted to intensive grazing. This hybrid has very fine stems and a high leaf-to-stem ratio and produces high quality hay or haylage. With finer stems and leaves than sorghum-sudangrass, Piper Sudangrass is the better option if dry hay is desired. Piper is known for its rapid growth and lower prussic acid content than sorghum sudangrass. It produces large amounts of organic matter and suppresses weeds.

Pearl Millet

FSG300

FSG 300 is a bushy type hybrid pearl millet with high yield potential which is achieved very quickly needing only 63 days to reach the boot stage. FSG 300 has a high level of tolerance to many pathogens and high humidity, but cannot tolerate standing surface water. FSG 300 can be grown on as little as 16 inches of water, however, greater tonnage will be produced with greater water availability. FSG 300’s bushy type plant stature means that the forage produced is virtually all leaves. This greater leaf mass gives FSG 300 high crude protein concentrations and high TDN values. 

Other Millets

German R Strain Millet

A late-maturing, warm-season annual crop. It has medium stem thickness and numerous broad leaves up the stem. It is shallow rooted but tolerates short periods of drought during the growing season.  German R Strain Millet produces most of its growth during July and August. The crop remains vegetative and grows rapidly whenever moisture is available. Used for food plots or dry hay production.

Japanese Millet

A warm season annual crop commonly grown for mid-season grazing and forage production. It is a crop that compares to Sudangrass but without the prussic acid poisoning. Cattle find the forage palatable and it can be cut or grazed multiple times in the season. It is the most rapid growing of all millets producing ripe grain in 45 days after seeding.

White Proso Millet

Matures 75 days after emergence, grows to a height of 3 to 4 ft. tall, and has one of the lowest water requirements of summer annuals. Produces well during hot weather conditions and does not require high-input additions of nutrients.

Teff Grass

Teff

A self-pollinated, warm season annual grass which can be harvested multiple times during the growing season as dry hay, silage or pasture. As a fast-growing crop, Teff combines excellent forage quality with high yield during a relatively short growing season. Very low seeding rates due to extremely small seed size.