—Lancaster Farming. Saturday, October 13, 1973
34
James Eakin, center, is shown addressing a
group of farmers during the Lebanon
Countv grain sorghum field tour held
Lebanon Co. Farmers
Look at Grain Sorghum
grown quite extensively in dry
parts of the Southwest. Eakin
said corn does poorly in about one
year out of three in Lebanon
County. This year’s weather
would have favored corn, Eakin
pointed out, “But you can’t
predict the weather.” He views
sorghum as good insurance
About a dozen farmers turned
out Wednesday for a tour of
experimental grain sorghum
plots planted this spring by the
Lebanon County extension office.
Penn State extension agronomist
James Eakin talked to the group
about the value of grain sorghum,
or milo, varieties in different
livestock feeding programs, and
about growing and harvesting the
crop.
According to Glenn Miller and
Newton Bair, the two county
agents at the meeting, many
Lebanon County farmers have
gone entirely from corn to
sorghum. The Berks shale soils
which predominate in the county
favor sorghum, rather than corn,
as a feed crop. Berks shale soils
drain much more rapidly than
the Hagerstown and Duffield
soils which cover much of Lan
caster County. Sorghum is much
better adapted than corn to
droughty conditions.
In a drier than average year,
corn crops on many Lebanon
County farms could fail almost
completely. Grain sorghum,
though, would be very little af
fected by drier weather. It is
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Sorghum’s feeding value is
about 92 percent that of corn’s
•Eakin noted, which means that in
a normal year a sorghum grower
is giving up about eight percent.
In a dry year, though, sorghum
will yield a crop where corn
won’t. And 92 percent is a lot
better than nothing.
Working sorghum into a
feeding program calls for some
careful management, Eakin said.
“Protein content in sorghum
varies so much, anywhere from 9
to 12 percent, that you really
should have your crop tested so
you know exactly how much
supplemental feed you’ll have to
buy.”
Cows, steers and hogs can use
grain sorghum, Eakin said,
although some commercial
lysine may have to be added to
the ration. Sorghum is lower in
Wednesday. Eakin is an extension
agronomist at Penn State.
lysine, an essential amino acid,
than is corn. Although some
poultrymen have reported
success at feeding grain sorghum
to chickens, Eakin said he’d be a
little careful about using the bird
resistant varieties because of
their high tannic acid content.
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