Planting Grain Sorghum - 2015

So much crop residue that it's hard to see where the row marker ran

Row cleaners seemed to be doing their job even through thick crop residue

Believe it or not, that's the field after planting

It's raining today ( a nice, slow, soaking rain), and uncharacteristically for me, I was able to get my grain sorghum planted yesterday at just about the perfect time for those rains to get it up and growing.

This is about the sixth or seventh time I've planted grain sorghum and I still haven't figured out all the ins and outs of reliably growing a decent yielding crop (although two or three years of drought made it difficult and/or impossible), but I think I might finally be getting pretty close with this year's attempt.  Since there isn't that much grain sorghum being grown compared to the amount of corn, soybeans, and wheat sometimes it can be hard to find good reliable information about how to grow grain sorghum and there's even less info about no-tilling grain sorghum. It also doesn't help that every part of the country seems to have different ways of growing grain sorghum, and the way they grow grain sorghum in Texas isn't going to work in Nebraska at all. 

With all that in mind, I thought I'd share what little I know about no-tilling grain sorghum in Oklahoma just in case there's someone out there that is looking for that specific sort of information (I can almost guarantee that you're going to have to do something slightly different if you're from somewhere else). 

From my experience, you need to start with a clean, weed-free seedbed, since it can be hard to control most weeds once the sorghum is up and growing.  Most of my weed problems are crabgrass (I like growing crabgrass for hay, but hate it in my sorghum fields) and marestail.  Crabgrass is usually controlled with a pre-emergent herbicide in both no-till and tilled fields.  Marestail is usually easily controlled with tillage, but can be a real problem in no-till.  

With the crop residue from the sorghum-sudangrass I had the cows grazing this winter along with the right herbicide application, I'm pretty confident that I won't have as much of a weed problem this summer as I've had in some years.  

Once the weeds are controlled, it's important to plant at the right time with the correct seeding rate.  Most of that information can be found on an OSU blog about soil fertility management that I recently found, but  basically for my area of Oklahoma grain sorghum needs to be planted either between April 15 and May 1 or between  June 1 and July 1.  

This year I upped my planting rate to around 68,000 seeds per acre (approx. 5 lb. per acre) so that I'll get a final plant population of somewhere around 55,000.  Hopefully with a higher plant population I'll get less tillering so I'll be able to get the crop to dry down quicker this fall. 

I also increased my fertilizer rates to try to get some higher grain yields.  In the past, I would have been satisfied with relatively moderate yields, but I've decided to see if it's possible to eventually reach the point where I can consistently get some of the higher yields (120-150 bu./acre) that are theoretically possible with grain sorghum.  As a bonus, with higher fertilizer rates, I should also see more forage growth so that I can winter more cattle on the stubble.  

Planting depth is also important with grain sorghum, planting too deep can greatly reduce your final plant population.  In the past, I've tried planting as deep as 1.5" with the thought that I needed to plant into moisture, but that was a mistake.  Now I know that grain sorghum shouldn't be planted any deeper than 1" deep and it can be planted as shallow as 1/2" deep with good results.  This year I ended up planting it between 3/4" and 1"deep.

That's about all I know about growing grain sorghum and this fall I'll know more about if any of the changes I made this year actually worked, so stay tuned for that update.

Wheat Update - April 2015

Some of the better looking wheat - April 20

It's amazing what a little rain can do for a field of wheat.  About a week and a half ago it was pretty dry around here and the wheat was really starting to show it, turning blue from lack of water on top of the terraces, it had a little freeze damage in spots from the freeze we had back in early-April, and it was questionable if there was going to be much of a wheat harvest.  But over the last week we've gotten a little over two inches of rain at an almost perfect time to save the crop, the wheat has greened up nice, is about knee-high, and has started to head out.  Winter wheat is usually ready to harvest about 30-45 days after it heads out, so we might be harvesting wheat in late-May which would be earlier than normal.

Of course, the price for wheat also dropped to just under $5.00 because of the rain (at least that's the story about why it dropped in price) which is always a little irritating.

Weaning pen pasture cropped wheat

My pasture cropped wheat has had mixed results.  The wheat I planted in the weaning pen was top dressed with nitrogen in late-January and except for some weed problems (mainly cheat grass) looks almost as good as my other wheat.  If I can maneuver the combine through the gates, I'm planning on trying to harvest this 2-acre area to see how much grain I can get.

"Failed" field of pasture cropped wheat

The other area I tried pasture cropping didn't look like there was any chance of harvesting any grain at all, the clover was few and far between, so I decided to let the cows graze it for a few days.

I'm not exactly sure why the wheat didn't grow much in this area, but I'm betting that it's a fertility problem because it's been cut for hay too many times without fertilizing.  The next time I try pasture cropping wheat in this part of the pasture, I'll do some soil testing, then I'll break down and apply some fertilizer (about 30 lb. of N per acre would have made a huge difference). 

If we keep getting enough moisture, it doesn't get too hot too soon, and something catastrophic like a hail storm doesn't come through, we should have at least an average wheat harvest this summer. 

April Calves

For a number of reasons, the peak of my calving season has slowly moved over the years from mid-February to mid-April. Since I haven't been feeding much hay for awhile, last week I moved the cows to a different pasture than the one I wintered them on so that most of them would calve on some fresh ground which is always better for the calves.

The pasture I moved them to is a long strip that's about 30 acres and is probably the largest remnant of native prairie on the farm. In a good, wet year the grass will grow so thick that it's almost hard to walk through.  It's a great place for the cows to have their calves, but it can be a job if you're the guy trying to find those calves.

With the way the cows are quickly gaining condition on this pasture, how mild the weather has been, how I don't have to worry about freak cold snaps or building a bunch of windbreaks, and how quick the April calves seem to catch up to the March calves, I'm starting to better understand what the guys that claim April/May calving is better than February/March calving are talking about.  

The older I get, the more I'd rather walk around without a coat looking for calves laying out in the sun than struggle through knee-deep snow trying to carry a cold newborn calf to a sheltered area.

Oat and Turnip Cover Crop

Looking South at my Oat/Turnip Cover Crop

There's nothing earth-shattering to say about my oat and turnip cover crop experiment except that the oats are finally getting tall enough that the field has a green look to it, and the turnips are starting to look more like turnips.  I was wondering if the cold temperatures we had locally right after I drilled this mix would affect the germination of the oats or turnips, but so far it looks like a good portion of what I planted eventually came up.  This year, I probably could have waited until about mid-March to plant and I wouldn't have had such a delay in germination, but if it hadn't been as cold right after planting I'd have a lot more growth at this point compared to a later planting.  It always seems like it's hit or miss whenever I'm trying to decide when to plant something. 

Turnips are starting to look like turnips (I put my boot there on purpose to show the scale)

The turnips are really surprising in how quick they seem to grow, two weeks ago they were just coming out of the ground and now they are easily recognizable as turnips.  In another two or three weeks, they might be big enough to eat (if that's what you are inclined to want to do with your turnips).  I'm going to be planting grain sorghum in this field in about a month, so I'm hoping we get a little rain soon, and both the oats and turnips really start growing so that I get a little bit more benefit from this cover crop before I have to kill it. 

About four leaves and four inches of growth

Turnips from my "quick-and-dirty seedballs"

Back in February, I made some almost, but not quite right seed balls with some oat and turnip seed I had cleaned out of the drill, and I threw them in my garden/test plot to see if it might be worth it to make some proper seed balls sometime in the future.  From that quick little test, it looks like almost every turnip seed came up and none of the oats did.  I've been thinking that it might be worth the effort to try making some proper seed balls to get some clovers growing in scattered locations around my pastures.

Pasture Cropping Observations

I've been trying to figure out how the incorporate some form of pasture cropping on the farm for a while and last fall I had two areas that I drilled some winter wheat trying to learn a little bit more about the subject.  The largest area was about 10 acres of bermuda grass that I drilled with a mixture of  90 lb. of winter wheat and 7 lb. of crimson clover per acre.  The second area was in the weaning pen which is about 2 acres, where I only drilled 90 lb. of winter wheat per acre.  Both areas were planted on November 1. 

I didn't fertilize either area before drilling the wheat, although the weaning pen was grazed for about a week by some calves before it was planted.  When I top-dressed my wheat fields (January 27), I also top-dressed the weaning pen with about 40 lb. N per acre, but because I had crimson clover in the 10 acre area, I didn't top-dress it.

Weaning Pen -  February 15

On February 15, the wheat was nice and green and since I had to sort some cows, I went ahead and let them graze in the weaning pen for a couple of hours until they'd eaten about half of the top growth.     

Weaning Pen - March 25

Over 8 inches of growth

The wheat came out of dormancy a few weeks ago, and with the warmer temperatures and a little bit of moisture it has really started to grow in the weaning pen.  It's only two acres and I'm still experimenting, so I've decided to see how much grain I can get instead of grazing it.  If I had about 40 acres of this, I'd probably be grazing it until my pastures green up later this spring.

Pasture cropped hay field area - March 25

The 10 acres of wheat and crimson clover hasn't done as well as the wheat in the weaning pen.  There's some growth out there, but both the wheat and clover are a lot thinner than I'd like.  The clover is really disappointing, this is my second or third attempt at trying to grow clover or alfalfa in a pasture and I still can't seem to get it to grow.  I have a small patch of crimson clover growing next to a garden that I last planted about fifteen years ago that keeps coming back year after year but it's almost impossible for me to get it to grow anywhere else.  I was hoping that I could let the crimson clover go to seed in this pasture cropped area so that it would spread across the pasture, but I'm pretty pessimistic about that happening this year.

Next year, I think I'd put down some starter fertilizer before planting, I'll try planting earlier in the fall (mid-September to mid-October) to get more fall grazing, I'll wait to try growing clover again until I've grown a decent stand of wheat, and I might try adding something like turnips to the wheat.  I'm getting closer and closer to figuring out how to make pasture cropping work on the farm and hopefully some day soon I'll be pasture cropping on a much larger scale.

Buying a New Bull

Buying a new bull is pretty easy, all you need to do is decide what breed of bull you want, find a few bull producers, do a little talking with the guy selling the bulls while you look at their bulls, scratch your head trying to figure out all the EPDs of the various bulls, and then you pick the bull you want.  Of course, don't forget that you also have to remember not to look too shocked when you hear the prices, and it's considered really bad manners if you pass out after hearing how much that bull is going to cost.

My cows are commercial Black Angus (unregistered without any fancy papers), and my bulls are registered Black Angus bulls (they came with some fancy papers).  There are advantages to having both straight-bred cattle and black-hided cattle, but for a while I've been considering trying my hand at crossbreeding for a number of reasons and I've always liked the way red-hided cattle look so I've been giving serious thought to getting a different breed of bull than another Black Angus bull.

Getting a Hereford bull was one thought, since I like the way black baldy calves look and since they are also black-hided they should sell for as much as Black Angus calves. But I'd rather have some Hereford cows and a Black Angus bull to get my black baldies. If I ever buy some bred heifers again, I'd think about buying some Hereford heifers and using a LBW (Low birth weight) Black Angus bull on them.

I was also thinking about getting a Red Angus bull with the theory that the calves would be all black, I'd get a tiny bit of hybrid vigor in the calves, and if I saved some replacement heifers I could eventually turn the entire herd red with a few more Red Angus bulls and a little time.

A Brangus bull (either Red or Black) was another thought for a short time.  Brangus cattle are a composite breed of cattle that is 3/8 Brahman and 5/8 Angus.  The Brahman part of the breeding gives Brangus cattle a little more heat tolerance which can be important in places like OK and TX.  But the Brahman breeding can also give the Brangus some of the "ear" of the Brahman which has the possibility of getting docked at some sales (it all depends on what part of the country you are in).  Breeding a Brangus bull to Angus cows will give you what some people call an Ultra Black (3/16 Brahman and 13/16 Angus) which will still have the heat tolerance of the Brangus but a calf that you have to look pretty hard at to see the Brahman influence.  If I could find a good source for LBW Red Brangus bulls, that might be the best option in the future, resulting in better heat tolerance, more hybrid vigor, and some red-hided cattle in my pastures to look at.

The craziest idea I had was to raise my own bull from my existing herd.  I figured that if I can raise a decent replacement heifer and since I've been using decent registered bulls (so I should have some relatively good genetics out there), then it might be possible to raise my own bull.  Conventional wisdom says that you don't want to use "cheap" bulls because they are half of your calf crop, so I'm not sure if I'm willing to take that big of a potential risk anytime soon. 

In the end, I chickened out on all my grand plans to start a cross-breeding program with my cow herd and ended up buying another registered Black Angus bull.

There's an old rule of thumb that says that a bull should cost somewhere around what four weaned calves sell for, so when I saw that weaned steer calves were selling for almost $1500/head this week it took some of the sting out of how much I had to pay since I didn't pay quite that much for my new bull.

Of course, I'm also a little spoiled when it comes to buying bulls because the bull I'm replacing was a heck of a bull and a heck of a money-maker (at least as far as I could tell).  Although it helped that the cattle market really started going up a lot after I first got him, he cost pretty close to what four steers went for back when I bought him, I managed to get almost 160 calves from him, then I was able to sell him last fall for almost what I originally paid for him.

I hope this new bull lasts close to as long as the old bull did and that he makes me as much money.

After all that, I still like the idea of adding cross breeding to my cattle herd management.  If I start looking right now for my next bull, maybe I won't be as likely to take the "less risky" route by buying another Black Angus bull.

Thinking About Branding Cattle

In Oklahoma, branding livestock isn't required by law and the way I read the branding laws registering your brand isn't even required if you choose to brand your livestock.  But, since most sheriffs departments carry copies of the brand registry it makes it a whole lot easier to track down and identify the rightful owners of livestock if a brand is registered.

I've never branded any of my cattle, I usually just use ear tags for the cows and calves so I can tell mine from the neighbors if they ever happened to get out, although the bulls have freeze brands that are basically just ID numbers.   For whatever reason, I've always sort of associated branding with much larger cattle operations that have hundreds of cattle, or small hobby-type farms with a few head of cattle that call their ten acre pasture a "ranch" (not that there's anything wrong with that).   Since I'm somewhere in the middle and not really a hobby operation or a larger scale ranch, I never really saw the need for branding.

But, with the price of cattle going up as high as it has recently there have been more and more stories about cattle being stolen, and since I have a lot of money just walking around my pastures relatively unprotected, I've been thinking more and more about branding some of my cattle in the future. 

I don't see the point of going to the trouble of branding without registering the brand, and before you can register a brand you have to come up with an actual brand design, branding location, and brand name.  I have an old brand that Grandpa used to use that I thought about registering years ago, but I always assumed that since it was a pretty simple design that someone would have already registered it so I never really got past the thinking about it stage.  But after looking through the Brand Registry, I'm pretty sure that I'd be able to register this brand design, which is a little surprising.

The only thing left is to decide what it's proper description should be because I've had different people claim it should have different names.  I've always thought it was called the Flying M, but most Flying M brands I've seen don't look like this brand. 

Any ideas or suggestions?