22 Feb On the fence on what to grow in 2023?
A Year To Forget
Crop protection availability and drought made 2022 a year to forget. It seems like it has a lot of growers still on the fence on choosing what to grow in 2023. Corn yields have not increased over the past five or ten years on the Plains like other places because rainfall is still the limiting factor. As input costs and dry soils continue to haunt us, corn is often the one that requires higher cost inputs and needs stored soil moisture at planting to be successful. Sorghum input costs are lower and it handles drought much better. Sorghum did not go unscathed in places like Northwest Kansas where there was a complete burnout, but still offers more consistent yields in high stress environments like the Plains.
New Technology
If you are not aware, sorghum now has technology that gives you an over-the-top herbicide option to remove grass weeds. Double Team™ Sorghum is the system that allows you to use FirstAct™ herbicide to control grass weeds like sandbur, barnyardgrass, windmill grass, foxtails, and volunteer corn and wheat.
For those of you with irrigated acres, sorghum has a new insurance program that allows you to insure your irrigated sorghum at 80% of your irrigated corn yield. This is limited to specific counties in Western KS, OK, and TX. If you are in those areas, sorghum is a great option for those systems that are running low on water.
If you need some help seeing how sorghum can fit in your rotation, I do believe you will love our Crop ROI Calculator (https://sorghumpartners.com/roi/).
Hybrid Recommendations
Unsure of what to plant, Sorghum Partners has a range of products to fit your needs. Two new high yielding, SCA tolerant hybrids SP 66M16 and SP 67B17. SP 43M80 is a tough, drought tolerant, medium-early hybrid with excellent SCA tolerance, and is suited for most dryland fields across the Plains. For short season environments, SP 31A15 and SP 25C10 are great hybrids to consider.
If you have difficulty controlling grass weeds, you should be using Double Team Sorghum in these fields which starts with selecting SP 30A30 DT, SP 45A45 DT, and SP 58M85 DT. When paired with FirstAct herbicide, they will help you obtain cleaner fields and bigger yields.