US researcher developing improved sorghum hybrids for dairy cattle

Editor's note: Image above shows Melinda Yerka with one of her malting and brewing sorghum varieties. Photo courtesy of Melinda Yerka. A University of Nevada, Reno researcher is aiming to make a major discovery in global sorghum cultivation. Her preliminary research suggests that she has developed sorghum varieties having big enough seeds that they are efficiently broken up during the harvest, making their nutrients more bioavailable to dairy cows than existing sorghums. Even better, these unique sorghums are well-adapted to production in Nevada and California. Melinda Yerka, an associate professor in the Department of Agriculture, Veterinary & Rangeland Sciences, and her team have been adapting sorghum to have desirable grain qualities when grown in the Western U.S., outside of the traditional “Sorghum Belt” in the Great Plains. Some of these new varieties have very large seeds, in addition to very high levels of protein and starch. Much of this work has been conducted at the ...