Investment

Feed grains are utilised primarily as a source of energy, with most of the energy from starch, with the protein component usually considered of secondary importance. However, protein needs to be supplemented from crops such as soybean or lupin, and this represents a more expensive input per unit of metabolisable energy. Seed storage protein in sorghum is notorious for low digestibility, and can have adverse impacts on starch availability. In addition, small or variable grain size, a common problem in sorghum, results in yield losses to the farmer and higher processing costs for feed rations and human food uses. This investment aims to use novel genetic approaches to increase grain size, grain protein content and grain protein digestibility to produce high value sorghum hybrids to increase grower profitability.