Sorghum acres in the United States in 2021 increased approximately 24% from the previous year to near 7.3 million. This is the highest planted area since 2015, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report released on Sept. 10.
The largest driver of the market right now is the increased feed grain demand in China and export activities. This demand has been great for sorghum farmers as sorghum basis and pricing has been strong over the previous year. Because of the strong pricing and export demand, domestic use is actually down. Domestic use of sorghum for feed and ethanol were negatively impacted from near historic pricing. With that said, Nuseed is still seeing an increased interest in sorghum with improved traits in many markets including the livestock and pet food market, and the human food and health food markets. Nuseed is also seeing a large increase in sorghum silage interest as water continues to be a driving factor in many production areas driven by sorghum’s natural water use advantage over other crop alternatives.
