Showing How It's Done

The second phase of funded research concentrated on establishing demonstration plots in fields. Six funded projects included putting more hybrid trials for producers to see, making the most of irrigation technology and demonstrating new over-the-top weed and grass control technology.

“It’s so important to select hybrids that have the correct maturity dates,” said Jeff Dahlberg, Research Director for the Sorghum Checkoff. “This is important as growers consider options when cotton is hailed out in the Texas Panhandle, for example.”

James Mahan is looking at optimizing irrigation technology in sorghum. It is sensor technology that has been proven in cotton and shows good correlation between temperature and stress. We have lost a lot of irrigated sorghum as the cost of water has gone up and having tools out there that could help producers wanting to get back to some limited irrigated sorghum would be really helpful. This technology would allow farmers to irrigated when the plant most needs it and help to optimize their profit margins by combining good yield potential with timely, proper irrigation.

There are several plots demonstrating over-the-top weed and grass control technology out of Kansas Statue University, with demos in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas.