LITTLE ROCK (AP)--Arkansas farmers historically haven't grown much sorghum, but with the benefits of crop rotations and the possible onslaught of disease on soybeans, the crop has attracted more growers.

Stewart Weaver, who farms near Edmondson in Crittenden County, serves as secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas Corn and Grain Sorghum Board, but even he considers cotton his cash crop.

"It's the one I spend all my time on," Weaver said. "That's where I put all my energy."

The smallest of Arkansas six major row crops, grain sorghum, or milo, accounted for less than 1 percent of the 6.7 million acres planted statewide in soybeans, rice, cotton, wheat, corn and grain sorghum in 2004.

A tall, coarse annual grass, grain sorghum resembles corn but produces grain in a panicle, or cluster, instead of an ear. It's used mainly as animal feed.

The crop dipped last year, with Arkansas farmers planting only 60,000 acres of grain sorghum, the fewest since 1963.

But there are signs that sorghum will make a comeback and move back toward the record 940,000 acres that were planted in 1985.

For 2005, Haigwood believes grain sorghum makes sense.

"If we're in a situation like this year, where your profit potential is minimal, then we try to do what's good for the land and a rotation will help you," Haigwood said. "You may not make any money this year, but we'll be in a much better position next year, if the prices come back."

Jason Kelley, a Wheat and feed-grains agronomist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, said the Asian soybean rust, a potentially devastating wind-borne virus, should dictate a rebound for milo.

Many Arkansas farmers are expected to shift some of their nonirrigated soybean into grain sorghum.

Chris Tingle, an Extension Service soybean agronomist, said seed companies have told him they've increased grain sorghum sales tremendously.

Weaver uses grain sorghum as a way to control root-knot nematodes, microscopic worms that live in the soil and feed on plant roots.

Sandra Felts, whose family farms near Joiner in Mississippi County, has been growing grain sorghum for 25 to 30 years, she said. Last year, the Feltses planted about 125 of their 1,500 acres in sorghum, as a rotation crop.

"We are considering a little bit more this year," Felts said. "It really helps build the soil up."

Milo costs $169 to $234 an acre to grow, according to the 2005 crop production cost estimates prepared by the Extension Service. Wheat and soybeans are less expensive to produce, but Tony Windham, an agricultural economist who helps prepare the estimates, is quick to point out that this year's soybean cost estimates don't include any fungicide for the rust.

Date: 2/24/05

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