As reported in High Plains Journal, As a popular mid-American feed grain with global appeal, grain sorghum has bested some natural blows in the past decade and continued a viable climb.
A drought tolerant crop used in human and animal food, also made into environmentally friendly ethanol, sorghum’s versatility has garnered attention, said Jeff Zortman, a farmer near Fowler, in Meade County, Kansas.
“It’s not just a feed,” he said. “It can be used in other applications, and that has grown tremendously in the past five years.”
Kansas is historically tagged the Wheat State where 7.3 million acres were planted in 2021, but it’s also the largest producer of grain sorghum in the nation, with 3.6 million acres planted last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Roughly 6 to 7 million acres are planted to sorghum every year in the United States, said Brent Bean, director of agronomy for the United Sorghum Checkoff Program, based in Lubbock, Texas.
U.S. farmers were planting 8 million acres annually until the Plains were inundated with sugar cane aphids from 2015 to 2017, said Clayton Short, a sorghum producer near Assaria, Kansas.
“That hurt the industry,” he said. “It stopped research going into yield and redirected into tolerance and resistance for the surge. We lost some high producing areas.”
But sorghum has since been on the rebound.
“In the last two or three years, we’ve been seeing those acres come back,” Bean said. “This year and last, the price of grain sorghum has been good.”
In the High Plains, where depleting underground supplies of water have producers honed in on saving the resource, grain sorghum is an option.
“It’s trying to fill a bigger role in Kansas with the water issues,” Short said. “They’re trying to put sorghum into the area where you have limited water or have over-pumped.”
A good crop of grain sorghum is possible with less water, he said, compared to other staple crops, such as corn.
“If you have a full pro
China and other Asian countries, where ducks and swine are huge consumers, are big export customers, Zortman said.
“Pet food is another market that’s been utilizing sorghum. There’s a lot of research happening in that area, also aquaculture,” he said.
The conversion rate for fish can potentially be a pound of meat gain for every pound of feed consumed, Zortman said.
The commodity enjoys encouragement with pricing, thanks in part to export demand and environmental advantages going into the 2022 growing season, said Jesse McCurry, executive director of Kansas Grain Sorghum, based in Colwich.
“There’s no question we’re seeing some very interesting phenomena,” he said.
Another big plus these days is input costs, said Brent Bean.
“It just costs a lot less to plant sorghum,” he said. “You may see $80 to $100 an acre in seed cost to plant corn. With sorghum it’s $10 to $20 an acre. We don’t have the GMO traits with sorghum, so it doesn’t cost as much.”
file of moisture or irrigation, corn has top-end yield potential,” Short said. “But if you are limited, sorghum is a great fill.”
A five-year average of 207 million bushels of grain sorghum, also known as milo, is exported annually according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.
Of Kansas’ five major commodities, only wheat saw a drop in acres since 2015, according to Doug Bounds, USDA Kansas state statistician. The same was true for Colorado and Nebraska.
More uses increase demand and price for milo.
“Several markets have really grown. One is food grade,” Zortman said. “The thing that makes sorghum highly desirable is it’s gluten free. It can be milled and used in different applications.”
A non-genetically modified crop, sorghum is a popular grain for export, especially where GMO food and feed are not favored.
