In its first crop forecast of the new year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted U.S. corn and soybean production will simultaneously set new records in 2010, while planted wheat acreage will plummet by 14 percent to its lowest point since 1913.
Despite the increasing dominance of corn and soybeans in U.S. fields, another crop poised for growth in 2010 could be grain sorghum.
Grain sorghum acreage in the U.S. typically ranges from five to 18 million acres, mostly concentrated across the plains from Texas to the Dakotas. Kansas is the leading producer, harvesting more than 56 percent of the nation’s crop in 2009.
“There’s room for growth in Colorado,” said Dusti Fritz, the director of Western states field services with the United Sorghum Check-off. “We now have three test plot locations in Colorado to test sorghum varieties. Some of them have performed very well.”
An official producer group for Colorado sorghum growers was organized in November 2007. Terry Swanson, a farmer from Walsh, is the president of the group and last year was elected vice chairman of the National Sorghum Producers board of directors.
One thing that will make sorghum more attractive this year is revised crop insurance coverage that allows producers to obtain higher value coverage for their premium. The Risk Management Agency is using a new methodology for crop insurance price elections that establishes sorghum coverage at 97.8 percent of the value of corn. By comparison, last year’s coverage was set at 88 percent of the value of corn.
The change translates to somewhere between $20 and $50 per acre in additional insurance coverage, depending on individual yields and coverage levels.
It’s also proof that the sorghum industry has stronger advocacy behind it with the formation a year and a half ago of the first national sorghum check-off program, administered in Lubbock, Texas. While the National Sorghum Producers stumped for better insurance coverage, the check-off began funding research and market development on a bigger scale than ever before.
The emerging biofuels market is a key component of that effort. High grain prices and low gas prices lowered the boom on the ethanol industry in the couple of years. Existing ethanol plants are running at an average of 85 percent capacity, according to Terry Francl, market analyst for the American Farm Bureau. But the downturn wasn’t all bad for the sorghum industry. After all, sorghum’s cheaper than corn and uses a lot less water. As margins rebound and the economy slowly recovers, Francl expects plants sidelined by bankruptcy and financial woes to resume operation, and sorghum growers are poised to get in on the action.
According to results of a recent survey, 29 percent of grain sorghum production is now being used to produce ethanol fuel. The sorghum industry’s goal is to increase that amount to 50 percent by 2011.
“This study shows what we have always known, that sorghum ethanol yields are comparable to corn,” said Bill Greving, a producer from Prairie View, Kan. “In the past year, the price differential has greatly benefited the bottom line of ethanol plants using sorghum as a feedstock. This means that the use of sorghum by ethanol plants has influenced the increased demand for sorghum in these areas where ethanol plants are co-located with sorghum production.”
To help ethanol plants with the feedstock learning curve, the sorghum check-off created a calculator, available on CD, to help run cost and production estimates. “With this decision tool, ethanol plants can look at all of the economics to see what makes sense,” Fritz said.
While sorghum grain is used for ethanol, high biomass forage sorghum demonstrates great potential to fit into cellulosic ethanol conversion, thus enabling the industry to supply the needs of multiple biofuel systems.
Sorghum is a great alternative to corn on the arid plains but hasn’t always received the respect it deserves, Fritz said.
“The disparity between corn and sorghum is just a myth,” Fritz said. “Sorghum has great attributes, and we want to get the factual information out there that show the benefits of sorghum.”
Even as a food crop, sorghum holds potential.
Wheat gluten intolerance, or Celiac disease, is the most common food-sensitive intestinal condition in humans. Celiac disease is a digestive condition triggered by the consumption of protein gluten, which is found in a wide variety of breads, cookies, pasta, and many other foods containing barley, rye, or wheat. Individuals with celiac disease who consume gluten over a long period of time suffer damage to the small intestine, resulting in interference with the absorption of nutrients from food and potential malnutrition.
Sorghum is a source of gluten-free products while also providing valuable anti-oxidants.
Most people are familiar with sorghum molasses, and Fritz said she’s even heard of a sorghum beer. “The food applications are growing,” she said. “Food use won’t be a huge use for sorghum, but it’s a growing use.”
So far the national check-off has injected more than $1 million into sorghum agronomic research, including work on over-the-top grass control and drought tolerant varieties, and international market development, which has triggered strong exports to countries like Morocco.
Fritz and Chris Cogburn, strategic business director for the National Sorghum Producers, are scheduled to present a session on grain sorghum during the High Plains No-Till Conference in Burlington, Feb. 2-3. More sorghum producer meetings will be held across Colorado this spring, Fritz said.
Enid, Okla. —
