WINCHESTER, Ky. – A new forage has been showing up in summer mixtures across the nation the past couple of years. High in nitrogen, drought tolerant and a great crop for low pH soils, sunn hemp is becoming one of the most recognized new crops for livestock producers of every sort. It also provides a really good bang for its buck.

A warm-weather grass which hailed from India, the annual grass gets its name from its similar look to the traditional industrial hemp along with its bright yellow flowers (there is no tetrahydrocannabinol in sunn hemp). Despite its name, sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) is not related to the industrial hemp you might think of, but is a legume in the same family as peas and beans. According to University of Missouri research, it has one of the highest nutritional values and additional carrying capacity in pounds of live animals per acre. The crop offers 20-25 percent crude protein and is 90 percent digestible. It increased cattle gain per acre by 17 percent, according to the university’s research.

One person taking full advantage of the forage is Kevin Poole, founder of Hemp Cattle Company – located in Winchester – who finishes his cattle on the crop and currently mixes it with Sudan grass.

“It’s an amazing plant,” Poole said. “It’s higher in protein than then alfalfa and corn and soybeans. It is a legume so it puts nitrogen back in the soil similar to beans. It’s very high in protein and some prefer to mix it with cow peas when they chop it for silage. Sunn hemp does not go to seed in Kentucky because of the shortened growing season leaving only the tender high protein source that the cattle love to graze.”

Since it is a legume, Sunn hemp has a relationship with bacteria which converts atmospheric nitrogen into plant-available nitrogen. It is believed that this tropical crop has been grown for hundreds of years, and it still remains popular in India, Bangladesh and Brazil. Sunn hemp can be used for forage, fiber or as a green manure to provide nitrogen to subsequently planted crops.

Growing up to 9 feet tall, depending on the region, its use has been limited by the availability of seed. However, newer varieties (i.e. AU Golden and AU Darbin) have been bred that have the capability to produce seed in temperate climates.

According to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, since it has a high quality, the crop its best suited for no more than three hours of grazing per day for livestock which are going to be fed straight onto pasture.

Despite traditionally being a southern crop, it has experienced success in the north as well. An experiment by the University of Massachusetts found that the region’s summers were still warm enough to grow the plant. In the 2016 drought, sunn hemp remained high performing while other crops in the area suffered.

“It’s a very unique crop for sure,” said Josh Tooley in 2018 about a Missouri study regarding the plant. At the time, Tooley was a graduate student in plant, insect and microbial sciences “At the producer level, there are a few who are using sunn hemp. From a research standpoint, though, we’ve only found one other study where grazing sunn hemp was attempted. Within the scientific community, this is a novel project.”

And the end product is just better, Poole said. “When I mixed it with sudan grass and when I mixed it with alfalfa, there was great marbling. There is very little fat within the meat and the burger doesn’t fall apart when on the grill…and the taste is just pretty darn good.”