Custom Mixing

We believe these four stock mixtures will do a good job with a number of soil building concerns, but cannot address the wide range of issues farmers are targeting. We specialize in the custom mixing of all cover crop products found on our website. You can use the stock mixtures we offer as a base to work from, add other products and we will custom mix these to your specifications to make the soil health improvements you are targeting. We continue to stock all of the traditional annual forage seeds many farmers use individually for hay, silage, haylage and rotational uses.

Individual Soil Health Crops

Sorghum Sudangrass Hybrid (Sweething)

A fast growing, highly palatable hybrid. It is widely adaptable and dependable to produce good quality forage in varying conditions. Sweething is well-suited for greenchop or haylage, and an excellent cover crop. Sweething produces a sweet, leafy, fine stemmed plant for high value feed. For maximum production with multiple cuttings, take the first cut when the plants are approximately 36 inches in height.

BMR Sorghum Sudangrass Hybrid (Sweething)

This multipurpose hybrid offers tremendous flexibility to producers. When used as a direct pasture forage, BMR Sweething is exceptionally palatable and livestock tend to utilize more of the entire plant. Quality and production of regrowth are adequate for both rotational grazing and hay production. This hybrid also produces an excellent yielding silage crop with a high grain-to-stover ratio.

Brown Mid-Rib (BMR) Sweething adds an exciting new concept and form to sorghum-sudangrass forage hybrid. Because of the BMR trait, improved quality of the forage is attained with direct results of significant increases in animal gain. This hybrid has demonstrated the ability to increase both meat and milk production dramatically, resulting in a greater profit per acre of pasture.

BRM Sweething has exceptional palatability and significant reductions of lignin content in the plant do to the BMR gene. Lignin is the component of the plant cell walls that is the primary limiting factor in the digestion of forage fiber. With the reduction of lignin the digestibility of the plant increases dramatically. With the increased digestibility comes increased efficiency and therefore increased profitability. Add to this higher palatability and BMR Sweething is the product of choice in sorghum sudangrass. This hybrid BMR Sweething has slightly larger and wider leaves than most conventional sorghum-sudangrass varieties. It also has significant brown-midrib expression, medium stem size, and white tannin-free seeds.

Hybrid Pearl Millet

A high-yielding Pearl Millet Hybrid recommended for greenchop, grazing or hay. Our Hybrid Pearl Millet has a massive root system, which enables it to stand up to heat and drought, particularly on light soils. It shows good tolerance to leaf and stem diseases, and produces well on low pH soils with low fertility. Hybrid Pearl Millet has no prussic acid, and is recommended for both horses and cattle.

Piper Sudangrass

Popular for annual hay and late summer pasture, this annual forage is low in prussic acid content, and has good drought and disease tolerance. Piper is a Wisconsin release that has good regrowth after pasturing, and is the leading sudangrass hybrid.

Siberian Foxtail Millet

Siberian Foxtail Millet is the most commonly grown hay millet in the upper Midwest. Siberian is an early maturing hay millet, ready for harvesting 55 to 65 days after planting. Siberian is extremely hardy and drought tolerant, making excellent quality hay. It is not recommended for horses, after heading.

German Foxtail Millet

A longer season type than Siberian, it’s ready to harvest 65 to 70 days after planting. German Millet is taller with a coarser stem than Siberian. German Millet can produce more forage than Siberian, and because of its increased stem size, takes better management than other foxtail millets. It is not recommended for horses, after heading.

BMR Forage Sorghum (Sweetie)

This is the cattleman’s newest premier hybrid. Its exceptional sweetness and the fact that it is brown midrib trait makes BMR Sweetie a cut above the rest.

BMR Sweetie has larger stems than sorghum sudangrass hybrids, resulting in excellent resistance to lodging. It also retains its large dark green leaves throughout the growing season. BMR Sweetie is partially sterile, thereby not producing significant amounts of grain. This causes a substantial build-up of non-structural carbohydrates (sugars) in the stem and leaves. Consequently, the entire plant is more palatable to cattle than many conventional hybrids. Whether used as summer pasture, hay or left for a winter graze-out program, this BMR hybrid will provide significant increases in animal gain over conventional forage sorghums.

Forage Turnip

Turnip is a fast growing crop that reaches near maximum production 80 to 90 days after seeding. Turnip germinates quickly, and can be planted to provide summer, fall and winter grazing. Turnip can be green chopped but most often is grazed with roots, stems and leaves all being grazed. Turnip has been planted into irrigated corn in late July for grazing after combining. Turnip does best on well- drained soils with pH levels between 5.3 and 6.8.

Cow Pea

Annual warm season legume. Has the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through root nodules. Fares better on marginal, drier soils. Shade tolerant which makes it an ideal companion in cover crop mixes.

Austrian Winter Pea

Low growing viny legume with extremely good nitrogen fixing capabilities. Can survive winters if seeded with plenty of ground cover and has sufficient snow cover.

Sunflower

Annual plant with deep penetrating tap root for breaking soil compaction.

Dwarf Essex Rape

Member of cabbage/brassica family. Has excellent heat/cold tolerance and provides excellent forage qualities, especially during summer stress.

Soybean

Large seeded annual nitrogen fixing legume, commonly planted in this area.

Forage Pea

Cool season annual legume primarily used for forage production and mixed with other species.

Common Vetch

Low growing nitrogen fixing annual legume used to improve soil quality.

Hairy Vetch

Low growing nitrogen fixing legume used to improve soil quality, especially on marginal soils. Mildly winter hardy and may survive less severe winters given sufficient ground cover.

Lentil

Drought tolerant annual legume. Can be used for livestock feed due to their high protein content and low digestive inhibitors. Will provide some nitrogen fixation and provides excellent green manure crop.

Winter Triticale

A cross between wheat and rye. Produces excellent forage, especially on marginal soils with nitrogen present.

Radish

Forage Radish is an annual, cool season brassica, radish that is an excellent option for cover crop. The tuber can reach 12-18 inches deep, with the tap-root reaching up to seven feet. This radish will help with soil compaction, make nutrients more available and provide incredible biomass. It’s also a great component in fall grazing. With great cold tolerance, cattle will graze the leaf matter first, and later the bulb.