Gage County
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Beatrice NE 68310
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News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

MILO HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE

The sorghum gene map will be completed by the fall of 2006. This is exciting news and holds the potential to improve sorghum production in the United States Sorghum Belt from Southern Nebraska to Texas. More important it holds the potential to improve production in Africa and India where sorghum production is a matter of life and death.

Sorghum research at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Nebraska and associated USDA programs is building a tremendous store of gene location, and gene performance. It will allow sorghum breeders in these universities and private companies to isolate important new traits into sorghum varieties. This is vital since sorghum is a non-GMO (genetically modified organism) crop and likely to stay that way. We know how to bring GMO traits to sorghum without introducing the Roundup Ready trait. Resistance to glyphosate would be a potential disaster in sorghum because of the potential of the trait to escape to weedy relatives like johnsongrass and shattercane. So what trait which would be simple a dramatic in terms of yield, quality, or reduced cost would we be able to introduce into sorghum? GMO introductions cost millions of dollars and have to have a return on investment.

For years we have tried to keep tannin out of milo produced in the United States. Tannin gives the milo a bitter taste and makes it more bird resistant. Now tannins are being touted for their antioxidant power. Pound for pound milo has 150 times a much antioxidants as blueberries. Some food processors are looking to food grade sorghum flour to meet the needs.

All sorghum varieties being released today in the United States have a strong stay green characteristic. This means that under the drought stress of July or August the leaf tissue survives with less leaf injury so when the rains come these leaves can return to full function producing starch to fill the kernels. In Australia the hybrids are sorted for stay green. Under U.S. breeding programs the inbred lines are characterized and crosses ensure that a strong stay quality is in most hybrids.

I was excited at the recent Sorghum Research Conference in Lubbock, Texas that the major companies were well represented and have active research programs. There were three major programs and three independent breeding programs at the meeting. I was very concerned that the United States Aid to International Development (USAID) is considering changing the support criteria for research which could divide support dollars into such small packages that research on a number of tropical crops including sorghum and millet would be hurt. The ultimate loser would be the people of African countries who benefit from efforts to improve breeding materials and train scientists for their countries. A case where America says they want to help at the G-8 Summit, then turn around and reduce efforts.

For producers in Gage County the good news is that continued sorghum development will allow us to continue to make progress in yields and quality of this alternative crop for some 40,000 acres in our county.

View other Gage County News Columns & News Letters: http://gage.unl.edu/news/news.htm

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Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.
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