After a three-year surge in exports that boosted the popularity of sorghum, demand is forecast to fall and the feed grain is headed for the smallest harvest since 2012, says economist Dan O’Brien of Kansas State U.
A hardy, drought-tolerant crop, sorghum is grown mostly in the Plains. O’Brien pegs plantings at 6.8 million acres, down 20 percent from last year, with a crop of 387 million bushels — two-thirds of the size of the 2015 crop.
O’Brien says smaller sorghum plantings will flow from China’s decision to stop stockpiling corn. High corn prices in China made U.S sorghum, barley and distillers dried grains an economical alternative. “U.S. crop producers will lower their expectation of U.S. grain sorghum prices and profitability due to the change in Chinese grain sorghum import prospects,” said O’Brien.
His estimate of planting is 500,000 acres lower than a USDA projection made last fall. The USDA said last month that China would cut back on imports of corn substitutes as it copes with a huge corn stockpile. O’Brien did not suggest if growers would plant other crops in place of sorghum or let the land sit fallow.