This video was shot at the end of August — three months after soil bed prep and planting. The grain sorghum planting with Adams-Briscoe Seed did fantastic with all fields getting great germination and solid growth. At the end of August all the sorghum plants have full mature seed heads that are starting to turn brown and harden. Deer, turkey, dove and many other critters will start feeding on the sorghum when it dries out more.

Our blend of lab-lab beans with the sorghum turned out really well, too. Some of our larger field did really well with sorghum, but I think the heavier rate of sorghum and its quick germination allowed it to jump-start the beans and shade out some of those. However, in some of our other blended plots the beans are vining right up the sorghum and Egyptian wheat stalks. Because we inoculated the beans, they are pumping atmospheric nitrogen into their root system and fixing it in the soil for the plants to use and for future plantings.

Our Egyptian wheat screens did OK. They grew up tall, but once they turned brown were easily blown over from winds during an afternoon thunderstorm. The stalks grew over 8 feet tall on many of the plants, so even though they blew over some, they still provide screening cover for a deer-sized animal. We went with 10-foot-wide strips of Egyptian wheat. I would double that if your intentions are to provide a screen in or around your food plots.

All in all we are very pleased with the 3 acres of summer plots that we’ve put in. The grain sorghum heads have developed nicely and will offer a lot of standing grain for wildlife this fall and the beans are really growing like crazy — vining well outside of the plots, too. Lab-lab is a very high protein food and now that the neighboring farmer’s soybeans have browned out and will be harvested soon, our beans should start getting some heavy pressure over the next 5 to 6 weeks before our first hard frost kills them.

Dove season is fast approaching here in Alabama, so we might mow some strips of grain sorghum down to pull in the doves and have a shoot. If we go that route then we’ll disc those strips in early October and plant them with an oat/wheat mixture, and probably some brassicas sown in as well. Stay tuned for more updates. I’ll be sure to let you know how well the deer feed on the sorghum this fall.