Double cropping - What is better oats or forage sorghum?

19/10/2023

These oats and Forage Sorghum plots (see results below) were seeded on June 2nd allowing for long season double crop options.
The oats were taken off on September 1st when they reached soft dough stage. The plan for the forage sorghum was to wait to take if off until a frost event occurred, which happened on October 13th.
The forage sorghum responded well to the frost; leaves crisped up but still stayed green and had mass. The results showed that a grower could keep it in the field well into the fall for fall grazing or for swath grazing, or silage.

Here is the link to the forage data taken for boot stage cut May 23rd 2023 of hybrid fall rye to compare what your combined totals could be as we planted this followiong boot cut.
Winter Cereals Forage Trials

If you take an average yield of 8 mt (at 35%) at boot cut of the hybird rye, plus either the 10 or 23 mt of the sorghum or oats you could be between 18-31 mt per ac. I think a soft wheat could also be an option seeded early June for forage after boot cut timing.
Another option is to wait until milk stage to gain more rye yield and then follow with oats or sorghum.

If you are looking for a forage or grazing option, forage sorghum could be a good fit on farm. If you are interested in something that you can seed and get off the field quickly, oats may be your best option.

More info on forage sorghum seed Forage Sorghum