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Drought conditions contribute to increased interest in sorghum

An agronomist says he’s seeing an uptick in sorghum interest as drought continues to pressure parts of the country.

UPL marketing manager Ryan Bryant-Schlobohm who is based in Texas, says forage sorghum is becoming an attractive option for dairies and feedlots in Texas and Oklahoma. “Due to lack of water in these pockets, as the aquifer recedes, and well capacities drop, forage sorghum because an even more viable option for them,” he says.  “Transitioning those corn acres that are on limited or lacking of water to something like a forage sorghum.”

He tells Brownfield interest in sorghum is expanding to other parts of the country. “Just for that simple fact of how resilient sorghum is and what this igrowth technology brings to the table now for increased weed control,” he says. 

Sorghum acres declined in 2022, but some market analysts are predicting an increase in planted acres this year because the crop is more drought-tolerant than wheat or corn.

The USDA’s Prospective Plantings report comes out March 31, 2023.