18 replies to this topic

[steve in IN]

Planted 15 acres of Teff in mid June. We are in an exetreme drought situation here but for some reason this stuff is growing like mad. I havent baled it yet maybe in three weeks. They should cross this with corn and we wouldnt need irrigation anymore. Just thought I would pass this on.

[covenanthay]

I planted some May 28th and we are also in a drought, 4.41 inches since April 1st, and I only have about a 10% stand. The seed supplier is checking into germination records as this was carry over seed for them. I am in NW Ohio.

[steve in IN]

I waited till we had a good soaker, 1.8 inches, to plant. It was June 18. It was bean stubble sprayed with glyphosate and disced once then planted with a Brillion seeder.

[Tehachapijulie]

<sub>Hi Steve,

I'm living in California and just spent $18.00 a bale for Teff. I'd never heard of it before but my shoer assured me her horses loved it and it tested perfect for what she was looking for in a grass hay. I have a couple of large pastures and am considering planting this as a pasture grass, your thoughts? Does it need much water? What company did you buy your seed from.

Thanks for any suggestions, Julie</sub>

[swmnhay]

I do sell it.But I wouldn't recomend it for pasture it is shallow rooted and horses hooves would kck it out.It doesn't take much water but it can be hard to get started.

Here is a nice growers guide.

http://www.producers...uidePCI2011.pdf

[steve in IN]

Julie, It is growing like mad in the worst drought I have seen since 88. I have to agree that it probably wouldnt make a good choice for pasture. I purchased mine from Byrons in central IN. I will try and remember to post after I bale and let all know how it turned out

[Teslan]

Thanks to this thread and a bunch of looking around on the net I'm interested in Teff as well. Though I wonder if our cool nights here in Colorado would hinder growth since we can get down into the 50s easily from June to the first of Sept. I have an alfalfa field that needs an alternative crop for a couple years. Maybe this would be a good one. Though getting hay buyers to want to try it for a decent price might be a trick. I guess just advertise as grass hay and go from there.

[Vol]

Julie, It is growing like mad in the worst drought I have seen since 88. I have to agree that it probably wouldnt make a good choice for pasture. I purchased mine from Byrons in central IN. I will try and remember to post after I bale and let all know how it turned out

Steve I would be very interested in how it cures and how it appears in small squares and about what tonnage per acre.

Regards, Mike

[downtownjr]

The beauty about Teff is that it is a cereal grain (lovegrass family) native to Northeastern Africa and Southwestern Arabia. Therefore it is native to hot dry climates...but is an annual. It is not the easiest to establish and seeds are very small, but once it has established you can count on nice yields. More and more hay growers around Indy are growing Teff. One guy up by Kokomo only grows Teff for his customers and has very little trouble with it or no problems selling it once he was able to convince a few area horse folks to try it. He has grown it for going on the fourth year and has routinely told me he gets 6-8 tons per acre each year. I will stop in and see how this year is treating the teff crop.
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I had personally seen it in the early 90's and was not familiar with it at the time in Northern Somalia and parts of Djibouti working a UN assignment. They spread it by hand and it did pretty well. They used it for flour. It was decade later that I had heard of it around here. I wil try to dig up some old pictures of the fields I seen from storage.

If this weather cycle keeps going it may be the move here.

Steve...Byrons sells very good seed of all types. Do you buy from from Ed Bowman? He is on here as Byron Seeds and a long time hay producer as well.

[Vol]

Good stuff Jim......I also buy from Byrons.....really like their Athos Orchard Grass.....best I have ever found. Looking forward to some pics when you get a chance. You look really good on a green tractor!

Regards, Mike

[steve in IN]

I get mine from Nutritional Blending in New Paris, IN. The salesman is Tom Moneyhefer. I also like thier Orchard grass varieyies also. The first cutting is very fine and very few heads. If this Teff works this year I will try some more next year. The way it is growing in this drought I cant help but wonder what it would be like with normal rainfall. I spoke last winter at a seed meeting for Byrons and all the people from the company seem like fine upstanding people. I also buy my cover crops seed there. Although if we dont get some rain soon the cover crops wont get planted.

[Vol]

Thanks to this thread and a bunch of looking around on the net I'm interested in Teff as well. Though I wonder if our cool nights here in Colorado would hinder growth since we can get down into the 50s easily from June to the first of Sept.

From what I have read, soil temperature is the critical factor and it must average above 60 degrees(soil) before planting....you could do a soil temp check right now at daybreak during a cooler night and see how it registers. I would think you would check it fairly shallow this time of year...a little deeper earlier in the year.

Regards, Mike

[Tehachapijulie]

Thanks everyone for the information, growers guide and seed companies! I'd never heard of the Teff before my shoer told me about it (she buys a truck and trailer load and sells what she doesn't use) The horses love it and from what I understand the protein and sugar levels are just right for our horses. Wish one of you lived in California, Just out of curiosity approx. how many bales can you get from an acre?

Thanks again, Julie

[captjack]

Bales per acre depends on a lot of things - rain , nitrogen etc etc I have found that if I leave about 4 inches when I cut it comes back real quick - now that means that I loose a little yield until my last cut, I average about 30 - 40 bales per acre - I cut every 30 days.

[steve in IN]

Cit my teff. It dried in one day. I am assuming this is from the drought. Made a ton to the acre with only a half inch of rain. Looks kinda ragged in bale but smells wonderful and feeds like candy. I am planting more next year. One week later with no rain it has grown back 6 inches.

[Tehachapijulie]

That sounds like the perfect hay for me to try and grow considering the price I have to pay for water

[HAYMAN1978]

WOULD THIS BE A GOOD CHOICE TO INTERSEED IN ALFALFA FIELD THAT IS GETTING THIN.

[Vol]

Depends....teff is an annual so you only get the one season versus orchard grass which will persist for many many years....whichever suits your operation the best....believe I would plant a perennial in my alfalfa and maybe teff elsewhere...unless you have plans on tearing the alfalfa out after next year....

Regards, Mike

[Matthew0209]

I decided to plant a bag of teff late just too try it. I burned my wheat stubble then used an offset 1 time, then a leveling disc 1 time, do all 1 time and planted with a land pride seeder/cultipacker on tuesday july 17. It came up a 1/4 inch by monday july 23. A week later today it is 6-7 inches tall. In thicker spots i pulled the grass straight up and its a foot long