Nutritionists Emphasize Sorghum's Value to European Livestock Industry

The Sorghum Checkoff and the U.S. Grains Council sponsored an American education group traveling to Spain and Portugal during the week of April 4-8 to increase Spanish livestock producers’ awareness about the value of using sorghum in their rations.

“Our main goal for this mission was to reinforce the value and benefits of sorghum in livestock production and hopefully increase purchases of U.S. sorghum.” said U.S. Grains Council representative, Alvaro Cordero. “We want foreign livestock producers to value sorghum for its nutritional value.”
Cordero said many foreign buyers will be educated on a variety of qualities of grains based on how they are using it. Lower quality grains can often be a significant value meaning that no matter the quality of their crop, farmers can be sure they will have a market for their grain.

Three nutritionists traveled with the group and discuss their experience with sorghum in dairy, beef, poultry and swine. Robert Hagevoort, an expert on dairy and beef cattle, discussed how grain sorghum, sorghum silage and sorghum DDGs have been valuable to dairies and beef producers in the U.S.

“I have extensive experience with sorghum and I know it can be a real value to livestock producers,” Hagevoort said. “We will present seminars and workshops for several potential customers. Our message is that we have a quality product that feeds well and we are looking to sell it. By continuing to build demand, hopefully we will help sorghum farmers increase their profitability.”

These efforts intend to further enhance Spain’s understanding and commitment to U.S. sorghum. Spain has imported 23 million bushels since September 2010 and has commitments to import an additional 3 million bushels. These purchases and commitments prove Spain is an important user of U.S. sorghum and these combined efforts should pay dividends to U.S. sorghum producers.