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Sorghum E-Notes

Published Friday, September 05, 2008 at 05:22 AM

he new National Sorghum Producers Board of Directors met last week in Corpus Christi, Texas. The 2008-2009 Board of Directors includes Chairman, Toby Bostwick, Past Chairman Dale Murden, newly-chosen Chairman Elect Gerald Simonsen, as well as Ken Georg of Kansas, Daniel Krienke of Texas, Brian McCuistion of Texas, Terry Swanson of Colorado, David Thomas of Texas and Eric Mork of Kansas.

The new Board was brought up to speed on the history, mission and direction of the National Sorghum Producers. Among other things, the Board discussed the non-transgenic status of grain sorghum and was given an update on the national sorghum checkoff.

Watch for Sorghum Midge

While rains on late planted sorghum have been a blessing to many farmers, that same rain may encourage a pest you’ll want to watch for. Sorghum Midge has been spotted in north Texas and it moving north from there. Midge, an orange colored insect which may resemble a fruit fly or small mosquito is most common to South and Central Texas as well as the Gulf states. The adult female in its one day of life lays about 50 eggs into open sorghum flowers which hatch into larvae in 2 to 3 days. These pupa feed off the developing grain. A damaged sorghum head will often show tubular appearing pupal skins hanging from the tip of the spikelet and rather than a full developing grain one will only observe a flat seed bearing structure which when squeezed may exude an orange colored juice.

Midge numbers can increase rapidly and damage your yields, so farmers are advised to check daily for the pests during the time sorghum heads are flowering. Suggested insecticides may be found in Texas Cooperative Extension Bulletin 1220 (5-07). More than one spraying may be required depending on the uniformity of flowering within the field.

Information adapted from Texas AgriLife Extention.

This Week in Sorghum Buzz

This week, Sorghum Buzz includes the articles below. But there are more! Visit our website for more buzz.

09-01-08, Ag Sense: Proper Seed Selection Can Pay Off at Harvest, Portales News-Tribune

08-28-08, Rains Criss Cross State, High Plains Journal

08-27-08, NSP Cohosts International Conference on Sorghum for Biofuel, High Plains Journal

For a complete listing of this week’s articles, go to http://www.sorghumgrowers.com/Sorghum%20Buzz.html.

51 Percent of Sorghum Rated Good to Excellent by NASS

Heading of the sorghum crop, at 88 percent complete, was eight percent behind last year and two percent behind the five-year average. Sorghum heading ranged from 16 percent ahead of normal in New Mexico to 17 percent behind average in Oklahoma. Heading was complete in the Delta. Sorghum coloring reached 55 percent, 13 points behind last year and three percent behind the five-year average. Thirty percent of the sorghum acreage reached maturity, four percent behind last year and one percent behind the 5-year average. Progress in all states except Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas was behind the normal pace. A quarter of the nation’s acreage had been harvested, two percent behind last year but equal to the average pace. Harvest was active in the Delta and on the southern Great Plains, and was most advanced in Louisiana and Texas. Sorghum condition, at 51 percent good to excellent, declined two percent from the previous week.

From: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/WWNatSumm/WWNatSumm-09-03-2008.pdf

Sorghum Meetings this Week

The Kansas Sorghum Commission held a meeting today and the Kansas State University Sorghum Field Day is in progress – beginning yesterday and wrapping up this afternoon. We will have more information next week on the happenings at these events.

Sorghum Germplasm Resources Showcased

A successful field day featuring novel and functional sorghum germplasm as well as community resources for evaluation and utilization was held at the Plant Stress & Germplasm Development Unit, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory (CSRL), USDA-ARS in Lubbock Texas on August 27, 2008. The field day was led by Dr. John Burke, CSRL laboratory director, with the participation by Drs. Zhanguo Xin and Gloria Burow, plant molecular biologist and physiologist from the sorghum abiotic stress improvement project. The event was attended by 23 stakeholders from the sorghum seed industry in the Texas High Plains area, biofuels sector, Texas Agrilife and Texas Tech University.

About Sorghum Notes

SORGHUM Notes is a publication of the National Sorghum Producers. NSP represents U.S. sorghum producers. The organization serves as the voice of the sorghum industry from coast to coast through education and legislative and regulatory representation. To learn more about NSP visit our website at www.sorghumgrowers.com. Write to us at National Sorghum Producers, 4201 N Interstate 27, Lubbock, TX 79403. To unsubscribe to Sorghum Notes, please reply to hannah@sorghumgrowers.com.

SORGHUM Notes is sponsored by:

Sorghum Partners, Inc.

P.O. Box 189, New Deal, TX 79350

Phone: (800) 645-7478 Fax: (806) 746-5305

Website: www.sorghum-partners.com

E-mail: information@sorghum-partners.com

Quote of the Week:

I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.

Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941), The Waves (1931)