In periods of drought, maize yields can be severely limited. Excessive heat can affect fertilisation or grain filling, reducing forage quality. To cope with these difficulties, it is recommended to diversify your forage crops.

Forage sorghum is a possible alternative. The fodder working group has been working on this issue.

The objective is to enrich and consolidate references, technical recommendations and diversify testimonies in order to strengthen the support given to farmers wishing to integrate sorghum into their production systems.

Two workshops on this topic were organised on 12 and 13 October 2021, with a technical conference and a visit to plots of land and a farmer’s testimony.

Benjamin Collin (Arvalis) spoke on the cultivation of forage sorghum, from sowing to harvesting, then Dr Georg Terler (HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein) spoke on the use of forage sorghum, from its conservation to its use in the ration.

Read more about it:

▶︎ Download the technical sheet Sudan grass

▶︎ Discover the technical video Fodder sorghum (coming soon)

In summer, the fodder group pooled the existing resources of the project partners to monitor the evolution of dry matter in maize and sorghum. The monitoring of nearly 90 plots (Alsace and BW) and the weekly analysis of the samples made it possible to support the farmers in the management of harvesting operations: optimal harvesting date, technical recommendations to optimise the quality of the fodder and its conservation, etc. A summary of the campaign will soon be available.

Discover the other productions of the working group:

▶︎ Download the testimonial sheet Grazing of winter covers and  intercrops