Seed Today - Q3 2008 - (Page 8)

Scott Seed Company office, production facility and warehouse, Hereford, TX. “What makes a good variety for biomass production is exactly the opposite of what we look for in a grain variety,” Coby says. “Fortunately, some of the varieties we rejected in the past have some good biomass characteristics. By reevaluating them, we can act in anticipation of customer demand for biomass varieties.” There is no guarantee when or how strongly the market for biomass sorghum products will develop. This uncertainty makes anticipation somewhat of a gamble. “We cannot wait for the market to develop, we have to plan to be ready with biomass products within two years,” the brothers say. “Perhaps that market will be slower than that—if it is we will just have to wait.” The newest product the Kriegshauser brothers are evaluating is sweet sorghum. These are very tall varieties with high sugar content. They more closely resemble sugarcane than traditional forage sorghum varieties. Some university studies estimate that sweet sorghum could yield upwards of 500 gallons of ethanol per acre. “We want to be ready when the market is ready for us,” Coby says. “There is a learning curve for how to best produce every new variety. We are now in that learning process.” Sorghum Production Aside from the weather, the biggest challenge in producing sorghum seed of any variety is maintaining varietal purity. Sorghum pollen can easily drift one or two miles to a neighboring field. In the past, sorghum seed producers have been able to maintain isolation by coordinating the timing and location of seed production. Since everyone has an economic interest in maintaining adequate isolation, that plan worked reasonably well. Sorghum seed producers in the Texas Panhandle are now facing an increasing “good news-bad news” situation. New sorghum products are displacing corn and alfalfa as the forage of choice for thousands of milk cows brought into the area by large-scale dairies. This is good news for seed sales, but bad news for seed production. There are many acres of forage sorghums that negatively affect seed production because of stray pollen. The ease with which pollen flows is evidenced by the distance between male rows in seed production fields. One pollinator row every 24 or 30 rows, depending on the operator’s planting equipment, is sufficient. In contrast, hybrid corn seed production requires one male row for every four or six female rows. “Isolation is just another part of producing sorghum seed. It is just like irrigation in this area in that the job seems to get a bit more complicated each year,” Coby says. Through it all, the Kriegshauser brothers maintain an optimistic view of the future. It is their only choice if the company is ever to become a fourgeneration family farm. Joe W. Funk, editor Coby and Chad Kriegshauser explain furrow irrigation and widely-spaced pollinator rows in a sorghum seed production field. 8 Third Quarter 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Seed Today - Q3 2008

Seed Today - Q3 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Cover Feature Fred Miller, Ph.D., MMR Genetics Crosbyton Seed Company AOSCA Greg Lowry Floyd Hansmeirer AOSA/SCST According to ASTA Seedsellers, Inc. BinMaster Blake Sieker Ad Index

Seed Today - Q3 2008

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