Agricultural News
Super Times for Sorghum Farmers
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:36:26 CST
It's a great time to be a sorghum farmer. That's not an expression that has been used a lot, but with passage of the 2014 Farm Bill and strong global demand for the crop that has made for exciting times. National Sorghum Producers Chairman J.B. Stewart said it has been an ideal time to be leading the organization. He remembers when sorghum was boring, but now the crop has gotten some real wins in the Farm Bill, through the checkoff and prices have been strong.
With strong demand for sorghum, the 2014 crop is in short supply and sales have already begun for the 2015 crop, which continues to help support prices. Stewart said the old crop is being priced at the Gulf at $2/bushel higher than the price of corn and the new crop is priced $1.50 over corn.
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Stewart on the floor of the Trade Show at the 2015 Commodity Classic. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
In farming near Keyes in the Oklahoma Panhandle, Stewart said sorghum has proved to be a viable crop, even with limited rainfall. He said without sorghum their only other cropping option would be wheat, so it's nice to have rotation possibilities and the crop has worked well on his farm.
"We called it the water sipping crop for several years and it's got the ability to handle the heat, handle the drought and when it gets rain it will just step back up and take off and go ahead and give you something," Stewart said.
In the near future farmers can look forward to planting some new herbicide-tolerant grain sorghum varieties. Stewart said this has been a long time coming and is greatly needed to help farmers in providing grassy weed solutions, plus has the potential to grow sorghum acres in the U.S. Stewart said farmers and seed companies are both anxiously awaiting for approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, so farmers can begin utilizing these need new advances.
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