Sorghum: The Next Big Forage?

With a drought and dry conditions across the US, a lot of producers are now looking at sorghum, Land O’ Lakes forage specialist, Jeffrey Jackson,

“From a forage standpoint, I'm seeing a really big increase in call volume right now, saying, Okay, Jeff, we've got a bunch of cows. We don't want to sell any because the market's so good now, we'd rather raise calves. Maybe there's been some wildfires in the area that have reduced our forage. I'm going to call it cash, or our supply. You burn all those acres off and need to feed. Now what can we do? There's been a big influx of calls about grazing sorghum, Sudan grasses, and maybe even taking some row crop production out for a year on irrigation, to get the feed source built back to where they're comfortable, get some range land recovered. We're going to maybe dry out feed or graze some pivots. So that's been a big increase.”

Jackson says, without a stronger market structure, grain sorghum struggles to compete with corn beyond its drought tolerance, limiting its grain market appeal, while remaining an advantage on the feed side as industry trends continue to evolve.

“Shortening maturity levels is a trend, and as we get shorter forages, then we could go farther north with them. As we get shorter-season grain sorghums, again, that expands the market farther into the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, shoot, I've got people calling me. We've been sending sorghum to Michigan and Wisconsin for multiple different reasons.”

Land O’ Lakes’ is Jeffrey Jackson.