Empirical assessment of grain sorghum resiliency, productivity, and profitability in the southeastern USA

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Commodities

• Agronomic: sorghum (milo)

Practices

• Crop Production: cropping systems, plant breeding and genetics
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, on-farm/ranch research
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
• Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration
• Pest Management: allelopathy, genetic resistance, integrated pest management
• Production Systems: dryland farming
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems

Most states in the southeastern USA report large feed grain deficits annually because of high animal production, primarily poultry and swine. Farmland exists to support a larger percentage of local feed grain production, but 85-90% of this is dryland production, relying on seasonal rainfall. While the region boasts high annual precipitation totals, the predominant soil type, especially in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, is sandy loam or loamy sand, which has a low water-holding capacity and low organic matter. Thus, intermittent drought conditions are still prevalent in the region to restrict grain yields. When climate change in future years is expected to worsen these factors that hinder crop productivity, it is irresponsible not to consider modifying existing cropping systems to make them more resilient, productive, and profitable.

While agricultural production systems in the southeastern USA are more diverse than other regions, the crops with highest production acres are water, nutrient, and management intensive. Meanwhile, grain sorghum production in the southeastern USA remains limited to under 100,000 acres. Grain sorghum requires less water than corn and soybean to produce a bushel of grain. Just as important, grain sorghum has a unique ability to slow down maturity to wait for adequate soil moisture. This physiological adaptation allows sorghum to be less affected by intermittent drought conditions that are frequently observed during summer months in the southeastern USA. However, more empirical evidence that is specifically generated in this region is desperately needed to inform university extension, crop consultants, and farmers. Nearly all data generated on sorghum productivity present in the literature or online comes from the Great Plains, which is not representative.

This project will determine sorghum’s climate resiliency in the southeastern USA by quantifying its regional productivity, water-use efficiency, carbon sequestration potential, and nematode suppressive ability. These production statistics generated at four on-farm sites in three states will also be generated for corn and soybean in the same fields to make a fair comparison across crops. Further, input costs will be recorded for these three crops within each farm trial to compare profitability as well as help build an interactive enterprise budget for farmers to use for making crop decisions on their farm. Cooperating farmers in this project will assist in producing enterprise budgets and review them prior to rollout.

Data generated from the on-farm research trials will be made publicly available in peer-reviewed publications, online, and through Extension events, including annual field days at the on-farm locations. Hosting these field days on-farm and within three highly underserved communities will encourage attendance from underrepresented minorities and create a more inclusive, discussion-based format. Project investigators and cooperating partners have experience reaching the target audience through diversified outreach strategies, which will be critical to the project by ensuring the information generated will reach stakeholders who can benefit from this research.

This project addresses the SARE sustainability goals to increase long-term profit, improve health and productivity of farmland, and enhance quality of life for farmers in underserved communities.

1. Conduct on-farm, multi-crop yield trials to assess sorghum productivity in regional cropping systems.
2. Measure belowground biomass accumulation of sorghum and competing crops to assess carbon sequestration potential.
3. Estimate plot-level water use efficiency of sorghum and other row crops by measuring terminal yield and total water inputs.
4. Monitor nematode population levels in a problematic on-farm location before and after sorghum cultivation compared with other prevalent broadleaf-cereal crop rotations (g., soybean-corn).
5. In the multi-crop trials, track variable input costs and generate per acre profitability based on yield and various sell prices.