Kansas Sorghum Update: Research Investments and Growth Strategy Discussions Look to the Future of Grain Sorghum

The Grain Sorghum industry in Kansas is continuing to position the crop to be a sustainable and profitable solution for farmers well into the future. Industry partnerships among research scientists at Kansas State University and collaborations with private industry in the state have yielded progress with more technology awaiting just down the innovation pipeline. Under the Collaborative Sorghum Investment Program, housed at public research institutions at K-State, goal driven-investment has developed tools to supply non-GMO trait technology through an efficient and effective U.S. breeding program, bred and selected right here for Kansas farmers by Kansas farmers. Sorghum-specific traits like early-season chilling tolerance, sugarcane-aphid tolerance, drought-stressed water-optimized yields, and agronomically-efficient high-lysine sorghums could arrive at the farmgate very soon.

And for more discussion on the future of sorghum in Kansas, you can recap the Ag Growth Sorghum Sector Session strategy conference held on July 14, 2021, and hosted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Part of this summer’s Kansas Governor’s Summit on Agricultural Growth, hear about the trait technology work of Research Scientists at Kansas State University working with the Center for Sorghum Improvement, see Kansas Grain Sorghum Staff share industry updates, learn from US Grains Council staff on international market trends and outlooks; and, observe your peers working and serving the sorghum industry here in Kansas on the producer panel.