GRDC's The Crop Doctor

One of the values of industry conferences is that they provide a platform for messages that might not be as palatable as parts of the industry might like.

An example would be the message to the recent Fifth Australian Sorghum Conference from Neal Gannon, national pig technical manager for Ridley AgriProducts P/L.

The GRDC, which invests about $1.3 million a year in research directly related to sorghum, was “platinum” sponsor of the three day conference, which was attended by more than 180 growers, researchers, seed company representatives and other grains industry people.

Dr Gannon told the conference sorghum remained Australia’s premier, dedicated feed grain but research was driving changes in the way the intensive livestock industries valued their grain purchases.

Historically the wheat and barley consumed by the livestock industry had lacked the quality needed for making bread or malting for beer production. They had not been grown specifically as feed grains.

Now research was allowing the individual livestock industries to identify the properties they required in feedstuffs.

NIR technology promised the ability to predict the relevant quality parameters of a particular grain for different livestock species

This could see the feed industries moving away from down-graded human food grain towards dedicated feed gain supply chains.  “Designer” or feed-specific varieties of wheat, barley and triticale could dislodge sorghum as the premium feed grain.

Dr Gannon said sorghum’s need for more extensive processing relative to other grains – with extra costs involved – was its major limitation in stockfeed production.

Sorghum needed higher gelatinisation temperatures in pellet manufacture while the grain’s small berry size required a smaller grind in milling; whole grains were not digested by animals and created inefficiencies in the ration.

At all times the feed industry was determining the value of feed inputs by least cost formulation, considering all aspects of raw material availability, inclusion levels and ability to supply nutrients.

The industry had advanced to the situation where its quality standards had no association with farm quality parameters – in fact there were big differences – and the challenge for the supply chain was to segregate grains and use them according to their optimal properties.

Growers might need to change their key performance indicators, and look at factors like mega-joules (MJ) in grain.

While demand for grain for livestock was projected to increase worldwide, feedstuffs specifically targeted to this market were being developed.

Sorghum producers need to be aware of these changes and produce a product that customers want.ed.

In some cases premiums might be paid but in others the fact that there was a market at all for sorghum could be the reward.