“It went in December 1 and it’s only had two waterings,” Mr Dempster said.
“Now it’s absolutely gotten away on us, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The 6 ha crop was planted at a density of 20 kg of seed per hectare and now reaches 2.8 m high in grey loamy soil.
“We only put water on it when it was going four weeks-plus with no rain,” Mr Dempster said.
“Unlike maize — which can be quite unforgiving if you don’t keep the moisture up — you can let sorghum stress for a few weeks and it bounces right back.”
Mr Dempster said the phenomenal growth achieved by the 2.8 m Dyna-Dan sorghum was created by the mild summer and January rainfall.
“I've never seen maize match the height I'm seeing here,” he said.
“Now with this late March rain it’s perfect. All this soil moisture will carry through to a great winter for crops.”
In addition to the towering Dyna-Dan crop, Mr Dempster also sowed a popular Queensland variety of seed sorghum alongside his forage sorghum.
“The Liberty seed sorghum here is still growing in, I saw some seed heads up north a foot tall.
“When you feed out heads like that the value is on par with maize.”
The seed sorghum Mr Dempster is far more pleased with, and plans to "definitely grow it again" on his property just north of Shepparton.
“The seed variety is three times more expensive but because we sowed it at 6 kg per hectare it works out to cost the same.”
Mr Dempster used DAP fertiliser on both sorghum crops at 180 kg/ha.
Links to field studies on sorghum, particularly on the seed variety known as Liberty used on Mr Dempster's farm, can be found on the below link.
Sorghum - Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation - University of Queensland (uq.edu.au)
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