Hybrid stands tall Sorghum survives rain
SORGHUM survived three major rainfall events throughout the summer on the Tait property at Yelarbon last season.
Jamie Tait said they planted sorghum into country that had been fallowed through from wheat but then the crops endured 200mm of rain in eight hours in midDecember, 100mm of rain three weeks later and another 100mm of rain shortly afterwards due to Cyclone Oswald.
He said the result were crops which were severely waterlogged and showed signs of nitrogen deficiency due to the conditions.
Despite this, the Pioneer brand sorghum G22 still produced an average yield over all areas of 3.5 tonnes per hectare.
“It was a fantastic average for us,” Mr Tait said.
The crop had been planted in three sections with the earliest on September 20, the second in mid-October and the third in early December.
Mr Tait said the DuPont Pioneer hybrid G22 was sown in the last two plants and was the pick of the sorghums grown on the property.
“G22 was very impressive,” he said. “It had nice big heads on it.” He said it was very hard to draw any conclusions from the year but they certainly would be growing G22 next season and considering DuPont Pioneer hybrid G33.
The sorghum was planted at rates of between 50,000 and 55,000 plants per hectare into either single-skip or double-skip row spacings.
Weed control was achieved with a combination of atrazine and dual and kept the paddock very clean throughout most of the season in spite of the adverse weather conditions.
The area has traditionally been a winter crop region but has switched to a summer crop focus in more recent years.
“We are really concentrating on summer crop,” Mr Tait said.
“It is now up to half the area. Sorghum is one of our main crops.”
The shift to sorghum has occurred with the introduction of zero-till technology to conserve moisture leading up to planting and also the single-skip and double-skip row configurations.
Mr Tait said they were always keen to put some of their sorghum in as soon as the ground temperatures warm up in September and then also plant other areas later in the season.
“We could double-crop barley into some of it but we will go back-to-back sorghum on a few blocks,” Mr Tait said.