When you think about Indiana row crop production, you think about corn, soybeans, and wheat (obviously). Late last week, a Pioneer agronomist friend of mine invited me up to the Rensselaer area to meet with Kolton Wilson of Wilson Farms, Inc. He’s been busy harvesting his corn, soybeans, and sorghum.
Sorghum is mostly grown in Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and other western states, but we do see some of it here in Indiana. Wilson says he just wanted to try out something different when he decided to plant sorghum about 4 years ago.
“Turns out the input costs were significantly cheaper than corn, so it was nice to just add into the rotation. There can be some rotational advantages too. Typically, the soybeans after the sorghum are better. The root structure of the sorghum kind of helps break up some compaction too, so it’s good all-around just to throw into the rotation.”
Sorghum has gained some popularity in that part of the state because of demand to make bird feed.
“So, it goes into the local elevator here in town,” says Wilson, “and then they ship it daily, two or three trucks a day, to a bird seed factory in Reynolds.”
And Wilson adds that elevator has been paying about 50 cents over the December corn futures recently for that sorghum.
I asked Wilson what would be considered a good sorghum crop.
“On a good year, we’re talking 130 bushel an acre. There’s been some stuff that’s been sub 100 here this year, so we’re kind of hoping for that higher range here. We’ll see what happens.”
As for equipment, Wilson says, “We run a draper, which is the same that we run on soybeans. So, as far as the header, there are different options out there. Some guys convert corn heads to be able to harvest it, which is a pretty neat little piece of equipment. And then as far as the combine, we add some filler plates into the concave to try and keep that grain in there a little bit longer to get threshed a little bit better. And you find all your little holes in everything, in your augers and whatnot. So, you kind of have to go through and make sure everything is sealed up real nice and tight.”
Next year will be an off year from sorghum in Wilson’s rotation, but he’ll probably be back at it again in 2024.
