Farmer-Led Innovation for Small-Scale Sorghum Harvesting: Designing Tools for Soil Health and Regional Resilience

Commodities

• Agronomic: sorghum (milo), sorghum (sweet)

Practices

• Crop Production: conservation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, double cropping, food processing, seed saving
• Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, workshop
• Farm Business Management: cooperatives, new enterprise development
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, dryland farming
• Soil Management: organic matter, soil analysis
• Sustainable Communities: community development, food hubs, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, partnerships

Carbon Sponge is leading a hub of small farmers in the Hudson Valley of New York to grow experimental plots of sorghum to improve soil health, expand the local grainshed and staple food supply, and diversify farmer income with a low-input crop. We have demonstrated that sorghum is a viable regional crop that measurably increases soil organic matter and draws strong market demand. As we expand, our biggest challenge has been finding appropriately scaled and easily transportable equipment for our harvest. This project will support the design and fabrication of machinery for both sorghum grain and juice harvest suited to our operations, enabling us to maximize our yield capture and drive long-term financial sustainability for the Hub and income for participating farms.

To address this equipment gap, we are organizing a collaborative farmhack at Wally Farms. Rather than starting from scratch, we will build upon the deep knowledge present in our community, inviting farmers, engineers, fabricators, designers, system thinkers, and documentarians. This grant will support the work of transforming the farmhack results into reality. The project entails the final design, build, and testing of prototypes for the 2026 sorghum harvest. From farmhack to fabrication and field trials, we will thoroughly document our process to share with the broader farming community via a final report and social media, encouraging even more collaboration and innovation. By investing in this work, Northeast SARE will help transform a regional experiment into a replicable model for regenerative sorghum production on small farms.

1. Review and evaluate existing sorghum grain and sweet-stalk juice harvesting methods and equipment-domestic and international-to determine what is currently accessible to small farms and identify specific gaps requiring new or adapted designs.
   
   
2. Design and document at least two viable equipment concepts for small-scale (2-10 acre) sorghum grain and juice harvest that minimize soil disturbance and maximize yield capture.
   
   
3. Produce refined engineering drawings and fabrication plans for one selected harvesting system (or paired system) based on farmhack insights and Hub farmer needs.
   
   
4. Fabricate a first-generation prototype of a sorghum grain and/or juice harvesting system using repurposed and locally available components for the 2026 growing season.
   
   
5. Conduct on-farm field testing of the prototype on at least two Hub farms during the 2026 harvest to evaluate performance, reliability, harvest efficiency, and impact on soil disturbance.
   
   
6. Document and publicly share the design process, prototype specifications, and field-test results through a written report and open-source plans to support broader adoption and a public field day.
   
   
7. Model and evaluate a collaborative, farmer-centered design approach by documenting participation, design decisions, and workflow, and producing a replicable framework for small-farm tool development.