Researchers Record Animals' Preference For Sorghum Technique Patented By Purdue.
INDIA’S WEST LAFAYETTE Purdue University-developed sorghum technology enhances crop and animal safety. It’s confirmed by new research that grazing ewes find it tasty.
Sorghum can withstand heat and drought, making it a hardy crop for fodder. Nevertheless, it yields the metabolite dhurrin, which decomposes into hydrogen cyanide, commonly known as prussic acid, which is poisonous to animals.
Farmers who are worried about feeding sorghum forage to their animals can rest easy knowing that a research team led by Mitch Tuinstra, the Wickersham Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Research and professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue’s Department of Agronomy, developed the prussic acid-free sorghum.
The June 2024 cover of Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management features research from Purdue University that demonstrates how the new sorghum technology also enhances palatability. The researchers verified that ewes not only preferred grazing on the prussic acid-free hybrid over conventional sorghum hybrids but also had the ability to identify and selectively feed on the preferred plants based on differences between pre- and post-grazing forage mass and measurements from drones.
Shelby Gruss, a former PhD student of Tuinstra’s who is currently an assistant professor of agronomy and the state forage specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, is the article’s primary author.
The sorghum technology free of prussic acid was created by Tuinstra’s research team in 2001. The Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization was notified of the technology by Tuinstra, the principal investigator, and was granted a patent for it in 2016.
Ag Alumni Seed’s president and CEO, Jay Hulbert, was invited in to assist in investigating the technology’s possible commercialization. While Purdue’s nonprofit affiliate produces high-performance popcorn hybrids, Hulbert’s company also provides finance and experience to bring Purdue’s value-added agricultural features to market.
Farmers would be better able to control the toxicity risk in animals while using sorghum forages if they planted sorghum that is free of prussic acid. According to Hulbert, “I felt this was a groundbreaking idea.” The worst thing that can happen to someone involved in animal agriculture is for them to do something bad for their animals. In regions of the United States experiencing increasing drought and extreme heat, this could improve farmers’ capacity to supply their cattle with high-quality feed.
The development and testing of prototype varieties at Purdue was financed by Ag Alumni Seed, and subsequently, the technology was licensed to S&W Seed Co., where it is being tested on sorghum hybrids that integrate the feature. According to Scott Staggenborg, director of S&W’s sorghum product marketing, seed will be extensively accessible by 2025.
A different, if unreliable, animal on S&W’s test grounds may have provided the Purdue researchers with some insight into the ewes’ preferences for munching. Among S&W’s much bigger sorghum fields, Texas jackrabbits discovered small plots of sorghum free of prussic acid. Each night, they consumed the new growth, leaving the traditional sorghum unaltered.
Staggenborg remarked, “These rabbits went 1,000 feet to find this stuff, and they kept coming back to it.” We just had a comparable encounter with researchers from Kansas State University. They couldn’t understand why a plot that one day appeared to be fantastic was “disappearing.” Once more, it was jackrabbits. He thinks their actions foreshadowed the outcomes of Gruss’s sheep-based palatability tests.
It was demonstrated that the hybrids without prussic acid functioned just as well as traditional hybrids, exhibiting comparable nutritional value and good forage accumulation. “It tastes better except for the absence of prussic acid, which might be harmful. We discuss all these features as we prepare to launch this into the market,” Staggenborg stated.
He anticipates a strong demand from growers. “People have attempted to place sizable orders for the previous two years,” he stated. “We also have customers in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina who are eager to plant hybrids without prussic acid.”
S&W plans to enhance the hybrids by including certain disease and pest resistances. “The base will be free of prussic acid, but we’re going to keep adding other traits that enhance the value around this one,” Staggenborg stated.
According to Tuinstra, who estimates that more than 40 million hectares of sorghum are produced for grain and forage production internationally, Purdue’s work in producing prussic acid-free sorghum has potential influence worldwide, even if Indiana is not a leader in U.S. sorghum production. “Globally, sorghum ranks fifth among cereals,” he declared. Furthermore, he noted that future Indiana farmers might plant more sorghum as the climate heats because of its resilience.
On September 6, 2024, at Purdue’s Agronomy Center for Research and Education’s 75th anniversary celebration, the sorghum free of prussic acid will be on display.
Concerning Purdue University
A public research university that exemplifies excellence at scale is Purdue University. Purdue is a public university that is ranked in the top 10 and has two colleges that are among the top four in the country. It is renowned for its exceptional quality and rapid dissemination of knowledge. Nearly 50,000 of Purdue’s more than 105,000 students attend classes in person on the West Lafayette campus, among other locations and modes of instruction. With a 13-year tuition freeze, Purdue’s main campus is dedicated to accessibility and affordability. Visit https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives to learn about Purdue’s unwavering pursuit of the next big leap, which includes its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes, and the One Health initiative.
