Agricultural News
Sorghum Checkoff Getting Up to Speed as it Begins Its Second Year
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 6:50:03 CST
The United Sorghum Checkoff Program has released its 2009 annual report. The annual report is a summary of the checkoff’s first year and the impact checkoff dollars have had on the sorghum industry.
“The Sorghum Checkoff has accomplished so much since the board was seated. We have developed bylaws, policies and a strategic plan to guide the board in its decisions to improve growers bottom lines,” said Bill Greving, Sorghum Checkoff president. We talked with Bill at the Commodity Classic this past week about year one for the sorghum checkoff- you can hear that conversation by clicking on the Listen Bar below.
In 2009 the Sorghum Checkoff funded 27 research projects. Some of these included research in cold and drought tolerance, over-the-top grass and weed control, nitrogen use and best management practices. The Sorghum Checkoff has also added a database of thousands of research articles to sorghumcheckoff.com for easy access to a wealth of information.
“Although it takes time for many projects to make it to the market, the checkoff board and staff have worked together with great efficiency to see that producers have more profitable sorghum as soon as possible,” Greving said.
Market development is a major priority for the Sorghum Checkoff and, in conjunction with the U.S. Grains Council, the checkoff sponsored several foreign buyer missions. One directly resulted in a 25,000 ton purchase of U.S. sorghum by the Moroccan poultry industry. The checkoff also worked with ethanol plants to increase their inclusion of sorghum in ethanol. The Sorghum Ethanol Inclusion Calculator is a tool developed by the Sorghum Checkoff to help ethanol producers calculate their returns by including sorghum as a feedstock for their ethanol.
The Sorghum Checkoff will soon offer production handbooks as a pocket guide to growing better sorghum. Growers can expect to see these available for different regions of U.S in the spring of 2010. The Sorghum Checkoff has also made an abundance of information available to producers at sorghumcheckoff.com. This Web site is updated constantly to ensure that producers always have access to new research results and resources to expand their marketing options.
The Sorghum Checkoff annual report is intended to tell producers how their checkoff dollars are being utilized. Please, take the opportunity to claim your annual report and see what the Sorghum Checkoff is doing for you. Click here for the Sorghum Checkoff website for more information on the efforts of this self help program.
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