With corn and soybeans often overproduced, farmers looking for alternative crops for diversification might find that sorghum is worth a look.
Tracy Zinc, Chair of the Nebraska Sorghum Producers Association, says sorghum offers several benefits.
“The diversification, it just has to happen on our fields, partly because we are getting so much weed resistance and we have too much corn. If you look at the carry and everything, we’re going to have too much. You still want to have a crop that can be used both for grain as well as for cattle feed and well as for grazing. And sorghum fits all that, plus it lets us put a new rotation of chemicals in so that we get some less of a weed-resistant buildup going.”
Zinc says she has even started realizing additional uses for the versatile commodity.
“It’s starting to be recognized where I can stretch my summer fallow out where it’s drier an extra year, because sorghum can handle drier conditions, but they’re starting to realize, Hey, that’s pretty good cow feed, too. And so we’re starting to see it progress onto more of the viable acres, better producing acres, and that’s where we need it to be, so we can get a little bit more of a consistent number of bushels.”
Zinc says sorghum provides good canopy right out of the gate, helping to suppress weed pressure.
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