Commodity Classic is a gathering of farmers who grow many crops, including sorghum. I wanted to learn more about the organization that assists sorghum growers, the National Sorghum Producers, so I spent a little time with their Chairman, Gerald Simonsen.
Simonsen began by telling me about a great victory that had recently for sorghum growers. The organization has some issues with the formulas used to figure price election for crop insurance. After more than eight years working on the issue, they have gotten the methodology changed. In 2009, the price election was 77.8 percent of corn – in 2010, the price election will be 97.8 percent of corn.
“That’s a huge difference in coverage for producers,” said Simonsen. “On a personal note, on my farm, it means a difference of $35 per acre in crop insurance.”
While the National Sorghum Producers handles a lot of policy issues, they are also very involved in sorghum’s use for ethanol. Today, 1/3 of the sorghum crop goes into ethanol production. They may grow, however, as more research is dedicated to producing ethanol from sugar-based sorghums like sweet sorghum and cellulosic and biomass production using energy sorghums or forage sorghums.
While Simonsen doesn’t anticipate more sorghum production by “leaps and bounds” he does anticipate “a slow and incremental gain over the next few years.”
You can listen to my interview with Gerald below.
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