Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Sunflower vs grain sorghum

Trying to give the peas some cover…anyone have experience with either?

Go with grain sorghum if you have many deer. They will destroy every single sunflower head before maturity. In my experience deer and other critters won’t touch milo until it’s mature.

I would mix them both and substitute sorghum for milo. Sorghum and milo maybe the same but I don't think it is

I’ve used both with peas. Deer will eat every sunflower if you have a modest density.

It's the same

They do like sunflowers.

Have any of you ever used milgoranite?

Worked for about a week...

You could mix Okra and/or Sunn Hemp with the sunflowers/peas for structure and still use Clethodim for grass control.

I use sorghum and it helps but last summer they still hammered the peas before they matured. I’m probably just planting chufas everywhere this year

What everybody else said about sunflowers. Even with moderate deer density they will wipe out the sunflowers before the establish. I quit tying to plant them.

Plant sunn hemp. The deer will eat it readily, which will take pressure off your peas/beans. Its a great nitrogen fixer, and creates a ton of biomass. The peas can use it to run on. It grows an inch a day and has a deep root system. It's high in protein too. My deer wear it out, but can't over browse it.

I already have my 50 pound bag of it, last year, I waited later to try and order it, and wasn't able to find it for what I was willing to pay.

I have also found that if I plant buckwheat, that gives the peas cover. Deer do eat it, and it does fix nitrogren. It's typically done after about 45 days, at which point it wilts and creates biomass.

Buckwheat adds phosphorus and will go to seed and resprout. I have triple cropped before when it was planted by itself. Wait till it seeds out, cut it the seeds will resprout and so on. I'm planting a mix of peas, sunn hemp, milo, buckwheat, and maybe a few others.

Worked about 2 weeks for me but only had 1 moderate rain.

Thanks you guys for your help!!

If you are close to Dothan, AL area there is a guy over that way that has mix called Summer Browz. It has a forage milo, buck wheat, lab-lab and a forage pea. I planted 4 or so acres of it last year. It did really well and overall was pleased with the results. The only thing I did not like was not being able to use a herbicide to control weeds with this mix.

What would you plant with soybeans lockjaw

Another positive about sun hemp it’s a legume so both grass and broadleaf herbicide can be used.

Any secrets to keep hogs off of it?