Published: October 24, 2009 11:30 pm         

Grain sorghum tour set for Wednesday

Garfield County Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service will conduct an In the Field 2009 Summer Crop Tour at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The meeting location is two miles east of Lahoma on U.S. 412, one-half mile north and then west into the plot site. From Winter Livestock, go one mile west on U.S. 412, one-half mile north and then west into plot site.

This field meeting site location is a variety plot grain sorghum study on Wuerflein’s farm. The farm has been in a rotation of sunflowers, corn, wheat and now grain sorghum. At this site, Rick Kochenhower, Oklahoma State University northwest area agronomist, will share information regarding the plot objectives of the study, in addition to production technologies associated with grain sorghum production.

Roger Gribble, northwest area agronomist, will visit with those in attendance about some of the issues grain sorghum producers faced this season with suckered heads and the use of herbicide to end the crop’s growth to allow harvest. Many producers have experienced serious delays with this technology, and Gribble will shed some light on this year’s situation and how to avoid similar situations in the future.

Rodney Jones, northwest area economist, will round out the extension segment of the field tour with a brief discussion about marketing and a price outlook for grain sorghum.

Several sorghum industry seed providers will be on hand to discuss the strengths of their sorghum hybrids, relating them to scenarios in which they are best suited. These industry representatives will be available for questions about their hybrid products.

For the final leg of the field tour, the group will travel west at about 10:30 a.m. on U.S. 412 to the North Central Research facility to observe the current no-till rotational study, which has utilized grain sorghum, corn, sunflowers, soybeans and wheat. Kochenhower will be joined by Chad Godsey to discuss the objectives of the rotational study, as well as some of the results that have been identified thus far.

Heath Sanders, OSU canola specialist, will be on hand to discuss the possibility of implementing canola as a part of a crop rotation. He also will discuss issues producers will face if they use canola as a part of a no-till rotation.

For information about this and other Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service programs, contact Jeff Bedwell, Garfield County ag educator, at 237-1228.