Not long ago, it was estimated that the break even yield for grain sorghum grown in the Mid-Atlantic is 85 bu/ac at the current seed price. Based on OVT testing in SC, NC, VA, and MD in 2013 and 2014 it seems that a good hybrid selection exists for growing sorghum as a single crop per season but not for planting after wheat as a double crop. For example 13 hybrids in VA and 19 across the four states produced average yields from 94 to 128 bu/ac in 2014. [2014 Sorghum OVT Summary] From these, five hybrids (DEKALB DKS 51-01 and 44-20; Pioneer 83P17; Mycogen 1G855; and Sorghum Partners NK6638) were also top performers across the Virginia-Carolina region in 2013 with yields at or over 100 bu/ac. At such high yield potential, they can produce 85 bu/ac and over in a regular farm setting. But double crop sorghum produced at the most 80 bu/ac (DKS51-01) across the Mid-Atlantic and 75 bu/ac (ALTA AG2103) in VA in 2014. Double crop grain sorghums did not perform better in 2013 either, when averaged across the region. There were a few exceptions; in NC certain hybrids (DKS33-88, 51-01, 44-20, and 55-33; ALTA AG2115 and 2101, Richardson Seed 92123; Southern Harvest 5964, 8064; and Southern States SS540) performed well under double cropping production. But, is this sufficient to conclude otherwise when neither in VA, MD, nor SC yields of double cropped sorghum exceeded 80 bu/ac? Better hybrids with improved adaptability to the region and this type of cropping would seem to be needed for grain sorghum to have a place in this region and where double cropping is practiced over hundreds of thousands of acres. We will continue to search for better hybrids in a double crop system within the OVT trials in 2015 and, hopefully, beyond.

Drs. Ron Heiniger, Bob Kratochvil, and Chris Ray and their teams are gratefully acknowledged for providing the OVT data from NC, MD, and SC, respectively.