Something Unexpected Mowing Sunn Hemp

Can you mow Sunn Hemp with a BCS tractor using a flail mower? This sunn hemp is over five feet tall. Its stalks are a quarter-inch thick, semi-woody, and covered with mall stems.

Turns out that Sunn Hemp is mashed into fibers when trying to flail with a mower. It jams up the flail mower just as fast as my phone overheats.

While Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) is not in the Cannabis sativa cultivars, it works well for biomass production, fiber, and fixing nitrogen in the soil. True hemp still has growing restrictions in Virginia.

Long stalks of sunn hemp let you go fishing for goats. They love to eat it. While it grows quickly, it doesn't have as much protein as other forage crops. Repeat grazing doesn't slow stem biomass growth.

Needless to say, my camera didn't record the jams and stalls. I had to raise the blade to 4" (max), then mow very slow and clean out the flail every twenty feet or so. The next testbed will be flailed much earlier or eaten by goats.