Egyptian Wheat

[sticknstring]

Anyone looking to plant any this spring? I need a few pounds but can only find it available in 10lbs and the shipping is pretty spendy. Would be interested in splitting some seed/shipping if anyone's interested. Will be ordering soon.

Let me know!

[LABS4ME]

We'll probably plant some. We use a low Prussic acid variety Sudan Grass. Great for pheasants and we use for screening some food plots also as it gets 8' high with ease....

When are you looking for it? Remember your soil temps have to be up there or it will stunt. We plant this stuff last after all other plots are in. Usually 1st week of June.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Dotch]

Ken,

Maybe it would be interesting to give people a little crash course on this stuff. When I first saw this thread I did the proverbial Google search as I thought I might've missed something in Agronomy 1010. I did but this one was probably not mentioned. Egyptian "wheat" is a bit of a misnomer for those not familiar with it. It's actually a member of the sorghum family, making it a warm season grass as opposed to wheat or triticum family, which are cool season grasses. If Google is correct (everything on the internet is gospel), it also known as shallu and is grown in India and tropical Africa. I've not monkeyed with it but was curious as to what the advantages might be say as opposed to cane or silage type sorghum. That was all the rage in food plots here about 15 - 20 years ago. I even bought special plates for my old corn planter because of that. I'll hang up and listen.

[LABS4ME]

Far from an agonomist... have a horticulture degree which gets me in more trouble than out of!

Cane Sorghum, Silage Sorghum, Sudan Grass, Egyptian Wheat are all the same plant... there are some minor differences within the family, but all would fall under the tall cane sorghum heading.

We used to use this stuff in the nursery to build up the organic matter in the soil on the years we idled a nursery plot. Plowing it into a field in the fall really bulks up the organic matter on ground that had grown a crop of trees for 5-10 years and help the next crop of trees flourish. We'd also bale some of it for use in the root cellars. The stuff is tuff as nails and VERY drought tolerant. It will give you more usable tonnage per acre than say corn and in areas with a reduced rainfall it will perfom a lot better and if memory serves me, is 1/3 the cost of conventional corn seed.

We've been using it on the deer property we manage more so for the fledgling pheasant population... (doves and the turkeys love it too, and surprisingly the ducks have been seen it next to ponds) and also to screen out certain food plots, especially from roads. Deer will also use it as a bedding option over the winter (along with the pheasants) and deer use it for security during hunting season. We will use it more and more this year and next to also create travel corridors and edges along some bigger food plots.

as far as food plots what I do know about it is this... it does have a fairly good protein content, but deer generally seem to graze other options on the property over this (they hammer the beans and cow peas). They do come back and hit the seed heads hard, especially in the dough stage. We have been kicking around geting some of the old hay ground out of Brome and into something to help offset expenses on the property. One thing we are looking to do this spring is talk to some local cattle farmers to see if they'd have any desire to buy out this for silage... seems to provide a lot of tonnage of fairly nutrious feed per acre. It is fairly easy to grow, drought tolerant, you plant it late so it would be a good fit for our schedules. The down side is it can create toxicity immediatley after a frost or cutting (need to let the prussic acid dissapate) which is not a huge issue, just need to be aware of it. We also use a hybrid known for low prussic acid amounts. We also use less nitrogen when we plant it to reduce the chance of nitrogen toxicity... all things to know when you plant it.

My understanding is that it is a more desireable plant for grazing if it is kept grazed or cut, but again we plant it and let it mature naturally... we plant it for it's late season benefits.

Don't know if any of this helps or not... just my limited knowledge of it.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Dotch]

I know the feeling. I can get into some of the same predicaments with hort crops. Luckily my wife who has a hort degree watches my back if I say or do anything too stupid.

Super info! Far more detailed than anything I could glean from my textbooks and other assorted reference material around the office. Especially appreciated the comments on prussic acid, something that some farmer-types filed away when the livestock went down the road many moons ago. I think you may be onto something there with the potential of selling some of it for forage. Given the amount of hay available due to the obsession with planting corn, forages of most types should be in demand. And, haylage/silage is a lot more fun to deal with than tossing bales.

[sticknstring]

Last call... I'm going to put in a seed order this afternoon. If anyone wants to split a bag, let me know asap! Makes for an excellent plot screen & great for upland birds. Thanks!

You two would love the qdma forums!