Okra for Summer Grazing and Drought Tolerance

0:00 [Music]

0:12 The other cover crops it kind of unique to us we can thank our one of our.

0:22 Salesman Colton Katerine for this we had this growing in his garden in summer 2012 when drought killed everything but this plant he said we need to explore.

0:36 This plants more and we found that not only does it survive a lot of heat and drought, that it's a sectional II good forage plant. Surprisingly, cattle really

0:49 Like to eat the leaves and the pods on this, and this is the same okra that's used for human food. Kind of fond of it myself. And so our cattle, some other.

1:03 Attributes that it has as a cover crop, as it has a very impressive taproot. This will root down actually deeper than sunflowers, more heat drought tolerant.

1:17 Than sunflowers. So as far as a broadleaf plant to include in the summer grazing mix or a soil-improving mix, the deep tap roots and the good drought tolerance.

1:29 Great forage quality, one of the more useful plants. I always put about a pound in a Corrine ochre and every summer grazing mix unless someone.

1:56 Three weeks ago we're in October now so we're really at the very tail end of the growth of summer annuals but look how well this.

2:08 Okra has regrown since it was grazed. The animals stripped the leaves and the pods off, and then the leaves regenerate from the stems, which they tend to leave alone.

2:20 And you can see all these graze stems here in a summer grazing mix that can be a real advantage. These stems remain.

2:29 Standing into the winter they turn dark color after frost and they're very very good at trapping snow and so moisture recharge during the winter is something that's important to you.

2:44 Okra is a pretty good plan to include in the summer grazing mix that'll be left grazed and left standing over the winter.