OUDAN GRASS is grown for hay and summer pasture. It ^ was obtained in 1909 from the Sudan Government at Khartum as the result of a systematic search for a form of Johnson grass without rootstocks. No other plant impor- tation ever gained such immediate and widespread popular- ity in the United States.
Sudan grass is strictly an annual, without underground rootstocks. It grows to a height of 3 to 5 feet in drilled seedings and 5 to 8 feet in cultivated rows. Drilled seedings are generally preferred for hay and the cultivated rows for seed production.
Sudan grass requires a warm climate for its best develop- ment and is of most value as an emergency hay crop, being superior to millet for this purpose in all except the northern third of the United States.
In irrigated sections of the Southwest, Sudan grass yields practically as much hay as alfalfa and is very useful in providing a variety of roughage for dairy cows.
The best time to cut Sudan grass for hay is when it is in full head, but the grass can be harvested somewhat earlier or later than this with no material loss in feeding value.
Sudan grass is a good soiling crop, but is of minor value for silage. The hay is equal in feeding value to that of tim- othy, millet, or Johnson grass.
It is being utilized more and more as a summer pasture in the Central and Southern States and is valuable as a pasture in the irrigated districts of the Southwest.
There is less danger of prussic-acid poisoning in pasturing or feeding Sudan grass than larger sorghums, but care must be observed in pasturing the grass, especially in the North- western States.
Feeding experiments have shown Sudan grass hay to be an excellent roughage for work animals and stock cattle and only slightly less valuable than alfalfa hay for milk cows.
Seed production is profitable only in certain favored locali- ties. Johnson grass seed is dangerous as an adulterant in
Sudan grass seed south of the thirty-eighth degree of lati- tude only. There Johnson grass behaves as a perennial and is difficult to eradicate.
Sudan grass hybridizes freely with the sorghums, and care is necessary to keep it from becoming a mongrel crop as have many of the sweet sorghums.
Washington, D. G. Issued May 1920; revised December, 1922.
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