Sorghum: A potential Forage and Biomass Crop in North

Dakota Marisol Berti

Dept. of Plant Sciences marisol.berti@ndsu.edu

North Dakota acreage 2010 • Forage sorghum • Sudan grass • Corn silage

• 20,137 • 12,160 • 130,266

Why are we interested in sorghum?

– More tolerant to alkali or salty soils than corn – High seedling vigor, 3-day emergence – Rapid growth, high dry matter yield – Drought resistant (17-25” rainfall) – Emergency hay – drought years – 88% of feeding value of corn silage – Potential feedstock for cellulosic ethanol

Brown mid-rib (BMR) character

• Reduced lignin • Increased digestibility • BMR-3, BMR-6, and

BMR-12

Objectives

• Determine the potential forage and biomass production of BMR and non-BMR sorghums in North Dakota.

• Determine the quality of forage sorghum grown in North Dakota.

Materials and Methods

• Experiment Location • Fargo and Prosper,

ND in 2010.

• 24 BMR and non-BMR forage sorghum (FS), sorghum x sudan (SS) and sudangrass (SU) hybrids

Experimental design/evaluations

• RCBD • 3 reps • Plots 6 rows, 30 ft long • Row spacing 12” • Planting date

– 5-19 Prosper – 5-25 Fargo

• Seeding rate – 10 lbs/acre

• Nitrogen fertilizer – (urea)- 80 lbs N/acre

• Forage yield targeted at : – First harvest 4.5 ft tall – Second harvest 4 ft tall – Third harvest residue

left in the fall • Biomass yield

– Only one harvest in the fall

Forage quality

• Crude protein • NDF (Neutral-detergent fiber) • ADF (Acid-detergent fiber) • ADL (Acid-detergent lignin) • IVDMD (In vitro dry matter digestibility) • NDFD (Neutral detergent fiber digestibility)48 h

• TDN (Total digestible nutrients) (Moore and Undersander,2002)

• RFQ • Using wet chemistry

Biomass quality

• NDF • ADF • ADL • Hemicellulose • Cellulose • Ethanol yield

– Conversion of 0.113 mg ethanol/g dry matter for BMR hybrids – Conversion 0.098 mg ethanol/g dry matter for non- BMR hybrids

(Dien et al., 2009)

Results- Forage yield

Entry Type BMR First Second Third Total ------------------------------tons dry matter/acre-------------------------------

BMR Sweething SS Y 2.45 1.76 0.00 4.21 Sweething SS N 2.06 1.04 0.57 3.66 BMR Sweetie FS Y 2.24 1.37 0.00 3.61 BMR AL 31 SS Y 2.21 1.20 0.00 3.41 BMR AL 53 SS Y 2.03 0.61 0.00 2.63 BMR Nutri+Plus SS Y 2.56 0.74 0.70 4.00 Special Effort SS N 2.24 0.99 0.76 3.99 BMR Honeysweet SS Y 2.56 1.35 0.10 4.01 Honeysweet SS N 2.08 0.79 0.69 3.55 Greentreat 128 FS Y 2.18 0.71 0.00 2.89 BMR 106 FS Y 2.41 1.07 0.00 3.48 BMR 105MS FS Y 2.36 1.34 0.00 3.70 BMR 108 Leafy FS Y 2.85 1.62 0.00 4.46 BMR 90 Leafy FS Y 2.28 1.69 0.00 3.97 Green Dynamo SS Y 2.36 1.07 0.00 3.43 Greentreat AT SS Y 2.28 0.69 0.56 3.53 Greentreat Plus SS Y 2.30 0.62 0.45 3.36

S9-09 SS N 2.84 1.90 0.00 4.75 FS-05 FS N 3.19 1.58 0.00 4.77 SX-17 SS N 2.23 0.76 0.74 3.73 Enorma SU Y 2.47 1.05 0.92 4.44 Piper SU N 2.48 1.11 0.81 4.39 Hayking SU Y 2.23 0.92 0.75 3.90 Forage King SU Y 2.30 0.72 0.67 3.68 LSD (0.05) 0.44 0.74 0.21 0.99 CV,% 19.60 27.10 67.00 16.50

Forage yield BMR vs. non-BMR

Forage harvest dates First Second Third Total -----------------------tons/acre-----------------------

BMR 2.35 1.08 0.24 3.6 Non-BMR 2.44 1.16 0.50 4.1 LSD (0.05) NS 0.01 NS 0.2 Range 2.03-3.19 0.62-1.76 0-0.92 2.63-4.77

Results-Forage quality First harvest forage quality Entry Type BMR CP NDF ADF ADL IVDMD NDFD TDN RFQ

% of dry matter BMR Sweething SS Y 13.4 58.2 31.1 2.2 75.9 85.9 64.5 158

Sweething SS N 13.3 57.8 32.6 3.6 68.1 77.7 60.7 137

BMR Sweetie FS Y 12.6 57.6 31.5 2.7 73.1 83.5 63.2 149 BMR AL 31 SS Y 14.9 58.4 30.4 2.8 71.3 81.2 61.7 144 BMR AL 53 SS Y 14.4 57.2 30.8 2.9 71.6 80.8 62.1 144 BMR Nutri+Plus SS Y 14.2 56.4 29.3 2.6 69.8 79.7 61.1 142 Special Effort SS N 14.0 56.8 30.6 3.0 69.4 78.8 62.4 147 BMR Honeysweet SS Y 13.5 58.1 30.9 2.3 74.9 84.6 64.5 157 Honeysweet SS N 14.4 56.5 30.5 2.9 69.7 78.7 62.2 147 Greentreat 128 FS Y 14.2 57.4 30.2 2.4 73.3 83.0 62.9 150 BMR 106 FS Y 14.2 56.3 30.2 2.8 71.8 81.3 62.5 148 BMR 105MS FS Y 12.4 59.4 32.6 2.8 70.9 78.9 61.6 141 BMR 108 Leafy FS Y 13.3 59.3 31.0 2.7 71.1 79.4 60.9 140 BMR 90 Leafy FS Y 12.9 56.9 30.2 2.6 71.7 81.0 62.5 147 Green Dynamo SS Y 14.9 60.0 31.6 2.9 71.2 81.8 61.4 141 Greentreat AT SS Y 14.2 55.5 29.8 2.2 72.4 80.8 62.0 146 Greentreat Plus SS Y 15.0 57.2 30.4 2.6 72.7 81.4 62.2 146 S9-09 FS N 13.7 58.7 31.7 3.0 69.0 78.8 61.8 144 FS-05 FS N 13.5 58.5 31.7 2.8 69.1 78.2 61.7 144 SX-17 SS N 14.2 58.3 33.0 3.3 69.3 78.2 60.8 138 Enorma SU Y 14.4 59.6 33.4 3.6 67.0 76.6 62.0 142 Piper SU N 13.8 59.2 34.1 3.6 67.1 76.3 61.6 141 Hayking SU Y 13.6 58.3 33.3 3.8 67.9 77.8 62.8 146 Forage King SU Y 14.9 56.6 30.6 2.7 76.2 85.1 64.2 157 LSD (0.05) NS NS NS 0.86 3.7 3.0 2.1 NS CV 7.3 3.0 4.8 19.4 2.1 2.1 5

Quality BMR vs. Non-BMR

ADL IVDMD NDFD TDN RFQ ----------------% of dry matter----------------

BMR 2.74 71.9 81.3 62 147 Non-BMR 3.15 68.8 78.1 61 142 Range 2.2-3.8 67.0-76.2 76.3-85.9 60-65 137-158

y = 84.5 - 4.693x r² = 0.7

y = 93.3 - 4.494x r² = 0.6

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

IVD

MD

or N

DFD

(%)

ADL (%)

IVDMD

NDFD

Results-Biomass yield Biomass yield Ethanol yield Entry Type BMR One harvest only Biomass

tons dry matter/acre L ha-1 BMR Sweething SS Y 9.64 3091 Sweething SS N 7.44 2069 BMR Sweetie FS Y 10.67 3421 BMR AL 31 SS Y 9.76 3130 BMR AL 53 SS Y 10.96 3516 BMR Nutri+Plus SS Y 6.89 2208 Special Effort SS N 7.56 2101 BMR Honeysweet SS Y 9.17 2939 Honeysweet SS N 9.33 2593 Greentreat 128 FS Y 14.96 4160 BMR 106 FS Y 8.99 2882 BMR 105MS FS Y 11.14 3573 BMR 108 Leafy FS Y 9.34 2994 BMR 90 Leafy FS Y 10.80 3463 Green Dynamo SS Y 10.33 2873 Greentreat AT SS Y 11.16 3104 Greentreat Plus SS Y 13.26 3688 S9-09 FS N 10.11 2811 FS-05 FS N 15.40 4281 SX-17 SS N 13.45 3741 Enorma SU Y 6.55 2100 Piper SU N 5.64 1807 Hayking SU Y 6.72 2154 Forage King SU Y 7.44 2386 LSD (0.05) 3.23 930 CV 21.4 20.9

Results-Biomass quality

Biomass yield

Ethanol yield

Tons dry matter/acre

Liters/ha Gallons/acre

BMR 9.86 3039 270.5 Non-BMR 9.84 2771 246.6 LSD(0.05) NS NS NS Range 5.64-15.40 1807-4281 160.8-381

Conclusions

Forage • BMR sorghums had lower

forage yield than non-BMR

• BMR sorghums had higher digestibility than non-BMR – lower ADL, and higher

IVDMD and NDFD

•

Biomass • Highest biomass and

ethanol yield was for FS-05 Forage sorghum • BMR and non-BMR

hybrids had a very similar yield potential

• Ethanol yield was slightly higher for BMR hybrids

Questions??