What are your thoughts on Sunn Hemp. I was thinking of planting some in large foodplots, leaving the perimeter 10 yds or so for a screen and disking and planting the center with a fall foodplot.

Have any of you used it in a similar way ?

Will it stay standing during the winter for a screen? Pics?
should you bush hog it if it gets too tall to quick?
How do you maximize the soil building characteristics?

The leaves will fall after the first frost. If you plant it thick enough, the stalks will provide a decent screen after the leaves are gone and will last through the winter. Ours got several feet overhead this year. We never cut it and just let it go. It does a good job of suppressing weeds if it get established.

I have left it for a screen and it worked great. It was still standing the next spring until I bush hogged it to plant something else

Could it be used for erosion control on newly cleared ground while feeding deer also??

I don't see why not but it's about $100 a bag.

Yeah, but it's gonna be a little expensive for that.

To the OP, sunn hemp makes a good buffer if planted thick enough. I prefer to use Egyptian wheat instead.

The newly cleared ground IS a food plot. I am planning to terrace and want something on the terraces ASAP. Food and erosion control would be great.

I think the main goal would be soil improvement, nutrition, and screening a distant 3rd. Could you mix in a little Egyptian wheat around perimeter for screening?

If screening during the fall and winter is your goal, Egyptian wheat is my go-to.

However, sunn hemp will fix nitrogen into your soul, is very nutritious, and provides incredible cover for fawns. I would do sunn hemp in the actual plot, with a buffer of Egyptian wheat.

Centrala, the sunn hemp would work, but how big is the plot? If it's not very big I would probably just go with wheat or Bahia.

It's also really good at providing great habitat for trophy rattlesnakes.

Salt out to at least 100' past the border of any field planted with it. Post the perimeter with NO RATTLESNAKES ALLOWED! signs.

I've always been afraid I'm going to run over a fawn one day when bushogging it in the fall.

Legitimate concern. I have wondered if rolling over it with a cultipacker will yield good results.