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Research helping sorghum growers maximize yields and manage stalk rot

Field trials are helping sorghum growers figure when to apply fungicides to maximize yields.

Kansas State University row crop specialist Rodrigo Onofre tells Brownfield research was done on three fields near Bavaria, Dighton and Russell.

“We had a positive response from those fungicides either applying at planting or at beginning of flower from those applications,” he says.

Onofre says the field studies are also looking into how growers can manage stalk rot, which is a leading cause of yield loss.

“They can persist in the soils for many years and our crop rotation doesn’t really help between corn, soybeans and sorghum. They can survive in the these hosts and so it’s very challenging,” he says.

He says research is looking at how cropping systems and row spacing could benefit crop performance.

“The current recommendation is avoid high population, but how high and what’s that limit? So we’re trying to fine tune and tailor those recommendations by region in Kansas,” he says.

Onofre says research researchers are still evaluating how fungicide applications form those field trials impacted stalk rot.

Brownfield interviewed Onofre at the 2024 Sorghum Connection Winter Series, hosted by Kansas State University and the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, in Salina, Kansas.

AUDIO: Rodrigo Onofre, Kansas State University