Can sorghum seed be harvested before it is mature?

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I’m growing grain sorghum for the first time and finding that the local birds are extremely fond of it. They ate every single seed from my small plot over a period of about 2 weeks. They had eaten most of it before the seed had completely matured. While that was disappointing, I’m pleasantly surprised to see that the plants are now sending up new seed heads — I’m hoping to get viable seed from this. I’m wondering if I can cut the seed heads before they are mature. Will seeds continue to develop if they are hanging in a barn with a little bit of stalk? Would this yield usable grain and viable seed? How early could I cut them? The birds seem to start feeding at the milk stage and are really focused on them at the dough stage.

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Maybe you’d be able to bag some of the seed heads after pollination? Keep the birds off them. I know different plants have different tendencies so I don’t know if mesh or paper bags, etc would work.

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I would try hanging the whole plant.

Also note that some of those plants will drop seed, so a volunteer population next year would answer the question.

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I suggest bagging it and leaving it on the stalk as long as possible because everything I’ve saved by taking it early before the birds eat it all, doesn’t do as well the next year.

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Hang CDs or some other shiny object between the plants?

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I would suggest reaching out to these folk who are doing pretty well with growing Sorghum in the Eugene, OR. They are very approachable in fact. The Sharing Gardens : Meet the Founders - Contact Us

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Thanks everyone for the tips. I’ll try harvesting some seed at different stages of maturity and see how it goes. I may hang some shiny objects too if I have time. I’m hoping to find an easy solution. If it’s too demanding, I’ll just grow other grains. It’s interesting to me that I had no bird problem with my wheat, but they just devour the sorghum. Maybe I could breed a sorghum with a really flimsy stalk that won’t support a bird’s weight. Hmmm…

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I wonder, do they go after all of it? Are heads lower on the stalk being predated as well?

If lower heads are being left alone, you might try growing a shorter sorghum with some kind of taller crop as a shield?

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They ate it all, tall, short, big heads, small heads, and everything in between. It was mostly bigger birds (cardinals) feeding, so the thought of a flimsy stalked sorghum crossed my mind, but I think that would just lead to lots of lodging.

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