Sesame as a Cover Crop: Heat-Tolerant, Wildlife-Friendly, Livestock-Resistant
See how sesame performs as a cover crop in our Nebraska test plots. Learn why sesame works in pollinator mixes and grazing systems—livestock won't eat it, but wildlife thrives on its high-energy seeds. Keith Berns and Dale Strickler walk through the benefits of this heat and drought-tolerant plant.
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0:00 One of the unique plants that we have in our treasure trove of offerings is a plant called sesame. People are familiar with it with sesame seeds on your bun or sesame oil for cooking perhaps, but a lot.
0:11 Of people don't know what the plant looks like or why you would want to use it in a cover crop mix. This is sesame out of Oklahoma.
0:21 So even though it's 60 days of growth and it's only about two and a half feet tall here, but it's already blooming quite well, which means it would work really well in a pollinator mix which we
0:30 Have in our warm season pollinator mix, but Dale, what would be some other reasons you would put sesame on a mix?
0:36 Well, we get calls all the time, you know what.
0:40 Can I plant that deer don't eat, or what can I put in my cover crop mix that'll still be left over to provide cover after the cattle go through? Nothing in their right mind eats this.
0:54 Plant. But everything in their right mind eats the seed because this seed has a very high oil content similar to like.
1:05 Sunflower seed, but unlike sunflower seed, it doesn't have a hole on it, so animals can just gobble this stuff up. It's like having someone peel all the
1:29 In particular, yeah, so we want the short season type, which is this is what it is. I say it's blooming. This will set some seed, but it's also very, very heat and drought.
1:38 Tolerant. I mean it's typically grown in the South, Oklahoma, Texas because it can really stand up to a lot of heat. And because it doesn't get grazed, you can put it in a grazing mix like you.
1:49 Said Dale, the cattle will come through and eat everything except the sesame. You can let it bloom out, make seed, and then that will support your quail and pheasant and dub populations.
1:59 For later on so we really like this in our warm season pollinator mixes. We like this in our upland game bird mix producing that high energy seed for later in the season, and then there'd be certain times where you might want to put it in a grazing mix if you don't want everything just grazed to the ground. Yeah, and again it is a completely different plant family than most of our offerings so it does offer that vital diversity that we're always looking for.