Sorghum: the Resource Conserving Ingredient

“Sorghum is the future,” said Brandon Bouma, a fifth-generation dairy farmer and owner of Legacy Dairy and Sorghum Silage Operation in Plainview, TX.  Bouma and his family milk nearly 4000 cows over a 24-hour period producing more than 60,000 gallons of milk per day at their Plainview facility. In late October, Danforth Center Principal investigators Nadia Shakoor, PhD and Ivan Baxter, PhD, Executive Director of Innovation Partnerships Stephanie Regagnon and their colleagues at BioSTL visited the operation to learn more about integrating sorghum as a key feed component for dairy cattle and its role in sustainable farming.

Water is a depleting natural resource in this part of Texas and growing sorghum requires 30 percent less water than corn. Ninety-one percent of sorghum acres are rain fed. However for optimal uptake of carbohydrates, the sorghum seeds must be cracked during harvest for the cows to digest. To that end, the Bouma family is working with researchers to produce sorghum with larger seeds, and companies to develop cultivation tools that can chop the berries during harvest. 

The tour was part of a two-day sorghum sustainability visit to Lubbock and Plainview, Texas organized by the National Sorghum Producers (NSP). The NSP is leading a five-year, Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funded by a grant up to $65 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shakoor is part of the nation-wide team that is working to quantify the climate impact potential of sorghum. 

“Sorghum’s adaptive traits, like its water-use efficiency and deep rooting system, make it an exceptional model for sustainable agriculture, particularly in regions where other crops struggle,” said Shakoor. “Our research is quantifying these benefits, helping to drive evidence-based practices that support farmers, conserve resources, and expand sorghum’s role in renewable energy, livestock feed and climate-smart agriculture,” said Shakoor.

The resilient ancient grain is well suited to thrive in changing climates with uncertain growing conditions. Sorghum is resistant to heat and drought, helps reduce soil erosion, improves soil health and conserves precious resources. With its dense and robust root structure, sorghum sequesters carbon deeper into soils. These inherent traits make it an ideal crop to positively contribute to both food security resiliency and the mitigation of climate change impacts. Its gluten-free properties also make it a nutritious whole grain that can be used in place of gluten-containing grains, and it has more protein than quinoa.

Participants engaged in discussions focused on the significance of sorghum’s role in sustainable ag practices, key markets, products, supply chain strategies, the history of the NSP and the Sorghum Checkoff, and priorities for crop improvement with Tim Lust NSP CEO, Barry Evans, producer and NSP Board Member, Norma Ritz Johnson CEO of the Sorghum Checkoff, David Drinnen, CFO Richardson Seeds, and John Duff, Sero-Ag Strategies.

Shakoor, Baxter and Danforth Center Principal Investigators Andrea Eveland, PhD and Chris Topp, PhD provided an overview of their research programs that aim to better understand gene function, water-use efficiency and key traits that make sorghum resilient to the stress of a changing climate. 

“The scale of the climate challenge that the farmers in West Texas are facing was pretty daunting,” said Baxter. “It shows how important it is to keep working to make this water efficient crop even more efficient and resilient to stress.”