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South American sorghum hunters come to western Kansas to learn about bountiful crop

Kansas Agland

From Kansas Agland:

GRIGSTON – There were plenty of signs to tell the South American trade buyers that – at least this fall – milo is king in western Kansas.

Mountains of milo dot about every Kansas elevator along Highway 96. What hasn’t been cut of the thick russet crop spreads across their route from Liberal to this tiny Scott County spot along the highway.

They saw how milo, or grain sorghum, is turned into feed for hogs, fuel for vehicles and food for human consumption. They learned how 110-car unit trains ship the crop from Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico.

No one can ignore that the redheaded stepchild of Kansas farm fields has been gaining ground for the past few years – not even these potential international customers.

At the farm office south of Grigston, farmer Shayne Suppes noted how milo has made strides. Suppes and his father, Ron, and cousin, Jace Gibbs, will harvest 4,000 acres of milo this year, with about a quarter of it going to food production at nearby Nu Life processing plant in Scott City.

Shayne Suppes said as he waited for the group to arrive that milo is becoming more attractive on the export market because “they see it as GMO-free and gluten-free,” he said of other countries.

Marketing milo

“What I hope to be able to get out of this trip is to be able to order sorghum in 2016,” said Fernan Zapata, who is with one of Peru’s largest poultry companies and raises hogs.

Zapata was among five others from Colombia and Peru who toured milo country – from Texas to western and central Kansas. The sorghum trade team was hosted by the U.S. Grains Council and led by Marri Carrow, regional director for the council’s Panama office.

Until a few years ago, the best market that farmers could find for their sorghum was the domestic market – with the grain shipped to ethanol plants, along with being turned into feed.

But in 2014, more than 85 percent of the nation’s sorghum was shipped to China, said Kansas Grain Sorghum Director Pat Damman. At the time, it caused a price increase for milo. And in Kansas, it pushed the price above corn for a while – something typically unheard of.

Prices for all commodities have fallen, however, which is in part because of the bigger crop. And China hasn’t committed to buying the the amount it did a year ago. A higher valued U.S. dollar, along with a slowdown in the Chinese economy and a lower price for China’s internal corn market, “that threw a wrench in it for a little bit,” Damman said.

But when the prices were soaring – $1 a bushel above corn at one point – some Kansas farmers sowed more acres to sorghum this past spring.

More sorghum will be harvested in Kansas than the past several years. Moreover, sorghum has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy, which, earlier this year, announced providing $30 million in funding for research on better varieties of sorghum – such as for drought tolerance and better biofuels.

In Kansas alone, 3.15 million acres were planted to milo, up 17 percent from 2014, according to the October report from the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service.

Kansas production is forecast at 258 million bushels, up 29 percent from last year.

Damman expected China to enter the market again this winter but added that China’s demand for U.S. sorghum has generated interest from other countries, including Taiwan.

“They’ve seen what China was doing,” he said.

Farm tour

It was supposed to be a day of touring an actual harvest. Shayne Suppes and his family had been harvesting seven days straight when a storm hit, leaving 1.5 inches of rain.

It was more than enough to stall the harvest and leave roads muddy. But it also was a blessing, Suppes said, noting that his wheat crop, planted in the dry ground, needed moisture.

Suppes was still able to get across to the trade group that this year is a bumper year.

His family hasn’t harvested a field under 100 bushels an acre, with the average between 100 and 130 bushels an acre.

“This year there is a lot,” he said of milo. “An overwhelming amount. If you see the piles, that tells you there is a lot. So the price will go down.”

Suppes added that most of the milo piled up outside of elevators will be taken to ethanol plants, helping to use the large amount of the state’s grain.

Peru’s Zapata said the tour has been eye-opening.

“I’m impressed with the high amount of sorghum that was planted between Texas and Kansas,” he said through a translator. “The land that was planted was huge. The way you store grains as well is very impressive.”

Zapata added that the technology and equipment used to harvest were incredible as well. He said he knew there was an era where some farmers’ practices caused soil erosion.

But it’s obvious to Zapata that farmers today use stewardship, along with technology, to better their operations.

“They really care for their land and work to improve it,” he said.

The company he works for, Rico Pollo, uses 20,000 tons of feed a month. But because of Peru’s rolling landscape – from mountains and rain forests to desert regions – growing grains isn’t possible.

In all, they buy about 180,000 metric tons of U.S. corn annually. They’d like to add milo to that mixture, he said, but only if the price is right.

“I want to be very candid,” Zapata said. “I think prices are going to fall and drop a little bit, and that will make it more attractive for us.”

Suppes said he thinks it is more effective for farmers to market their crops like he was doing on this day instead of through a middleman who isn’t involved in production agriculture.

Greg Graff, who farms in Wichita County, said it’s good to see South America interested in U.S. sorghum, adding that a trade agreement reached just a few years ago really opened up the markets for countries like Peru.

“Any time we have more buyers for our product, it is going to be better for me as a farmer,” he said.