Virden, Ill. — Sorghum is one of the top five cereal crops in the world and the United States is its largest producer. In 2016 the U.S. produced 480 million bushels. 

“Sorghum has its roots in Africa. It is a tough crop that is resilient. It has been in the U.S. for many decades,” said Doug Bice, Marketing Development Director for the United Sorghum Checkoff.

Until the mid-1980s sorghum went head to head with corn. “That is until the CRP program came out. Then its resiliency worked against it,” Bice said. With Round-Up Ready corn, more farmers switched from sorghum to corn. 

Sorghum is a varied crop with four main variations 1) grain, 2) sweet, 3) forage (for livestock) and 4) biomass (which is designed for ethanol use). The Sorghum Checkoff Website has a map showing where sorghum is traditionally grown from South Dakota to Southern Texas, primarily on dryland acres. However, there are plenty of sorghum farmers in the Midwest. 

Among these four families (grain, sweet, forage and biomass) Bice said there 43,000 to 44,000 versions of the tan and purple plants listed in the USDA libraries. These are all natural selections through seed breeding none are GMO or CRISPR technology trait selections.

“We are just scratching the surface,” Bice added about the variations of sorghum growers can choose. The secret seems to be in choosing the right variation for the location that the grower is in to make the best profit for the market near them. Besides this, sorghum also has economic and environmental benefits as well.

“Food grade pays the highest, second is specialty, which creates chemicals like oils and waxes, but this is a very small market,” Bice said, “and third highest is the pet food market.”

John Martin Williams is a sorghum grower from Enfield, Ill. He has been growing sorghum since 1988.“Sorghum is also called milo. We planted our first grain sorghum in 1988,” he said.

One of the things that Williams likes about the crop is that resiliency Bice mentioned. “Sorghum is a whole lot more weather diverse crop than corn. Grain sorghum will put the brakes on and shut down. It goes dormant and waits for it to get cooler or for a rain unlike corn. Then when weather gets better it will go ahead and pollinate.”

As far as marketing, Williams first sent his grain sorghum to Mexico for feed or south to the poultry houses. However, he said that has changed since the late 1990s. “Now sorghum on our rail contract goes to the Carolinas for pet food.”

Williams is on the Sorghum Checkoff Board. “Sorghum is a very diverse crop. I’m blessed to serve on the board and go to Washington once a year. People say why we are here. We need to tell the story. When I lobby they ask what part I play. Here in Illinois there are around 20,000-30,000 acres of sorghum planted a year and it is all here in southern Illinois”

As for growing sorghum, Williams said that farmers don’t need any specialized equipment. “I just use the corn and bean planters I have. I just have a special plate and use our Draper head on the combine to harvest it. It is a heavy dense crop so you need big fan on your bin to dry it. We have grain driers on our bins to keep the (sorghum) grain dry.” 

The reason that Williams plants sorghum is the cost of planting corn rose when nitrogen cost sky rocketed. He said it cost less to plant sorghum and he made more profit. “I don’t have to do anything different than planting corn. We have been national winners with our sorghum I’m still planting the same milo I was planting years ago.”

His only real complaint is that sorghum varieties don’t seem to increase in yields. “I wish they would improve the yield technology.”

There is so many things that sorghum offers, check out the CheckOff Website https://www.sorghumcheckoff.com/all-about-sorghum, or look at the Simply Sorghum https://www.simplysorghum.com/nutrition/website for food ideas.