Most corn is in the ground. Fields that were weather-caused fallow can still produce a very high-quality forage from sorghum.
Sorghum is planted after corn because the soil has to be warmer than for corn for rapid ger-mination. Thus, planting after early winter triti-cale and haylage harvest gets those jobs out of the way and gives time for the soil to warm. I have planted into warm soil with a rain immediately after, and the sorghum was all up in 2 days. I planted in warm soil and did not watch the weath-er forecast, and the field was bare two weeks after, as the cold rain that followed planting killed all the germinating seeds.
Corn seed is $180/acre or more. Sorghum planted at the correct population is $20/acre. This is a major savings. Sorghum kills corn rootworm, so the extra cost for rootworm control is not needed. Deer pressure is canceled as they hide in the crop and come out to eat the neighbor’s corn. It does not get the corn diseases, and so far we don’t have fungicide sprays for forage sorghum
