Sunn Hemp Hay in the North

Producing high quality feed in an affordable manner is a challenge for any livestock farmer.  In the north, the window for making a year's worth of hay is short.  Extreme weather events can make feed production even harder.

Sunn Hemp, a warm season legume, fixes relatively large amounts of nitrogen from the air.  It produces a crop in roughly sixty days, has relatively high yields, and is of high quality, according to the few sources who have made it into hay.  Unlike some other warm season annuals, it is not particularly difficult to grow.  It is not hard to establish, does not require large amounts of fertilizer, and competes better with weeds than some other crops.  It does not pose any problems with prussic acid poisoning, as does sudan-sorghum.  Working the production of Sunn Hemp hay into a cropping and grazing system would allow farmers in the north to improve their financial sustainability while improving the soil and improving overall farm resiliency.

My farm is located in the most rural part of the northeast.  Even here, land prices have increased substantially in recent years and many parcels of agricultural land have changed hands.  In general, this has meant that hay land has become more difficult to acquire and hay prices have gone up substantially.  In the last ten years we have had four hay seasons of either extreme drought or excessive rain, resulting in feed shortages for many livestock producers.  A high quality annual legume hay that improves soil health would be a boon for livestock producers across the northeast.

Legumes in particular are advantageous to work into any crop rotation.  We regularly incorporate various clovers into our hay and pasture and also grow dry beans and field peas.  Sunn Hemp potentially has advantages over other more common legumes in that it has higher yields, makes a large crop quickly, and fits well into a crop rotation scheme based around a short growing season.  In addition, the fiber parts of the crop-- the stems-- maintain higher protein than the stems of many other high yielding crops, making it a more flexible and easier crop to grow.

A decent round bale of hay currently costs at least $50 in the northeast.  This price would make many livestock producers financially not viable, were they to purchase large amounts of feed.  Any livestock producer striving to stay in business must produce most or all of their own hay-- the highest quality high possible.  Improving the soil with legumes makes short and long term sense for the pocketbook and for the environmental sustainability of any farm.

In addition, Sunn Hemp hay could serve as a cash crop for many farmers.  Many dairy farmers in Maine and elsewhere have switched to beef production, selling hay on the side.  A high protein legume hay may be a useful product to market for such producers.