By Denise Attaway
Richard “Rick” Boyles, an associate professor of cereal grains breeding and genetics at Clemson University, has been awarded a $495,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop higher-yielding, disease-resistant sorghum hybrids tailored to farmers in the Eastern U.S., where commercial options remain scarce.
Boyles, based at the Clemson University Pee Dee Research and Education Center (REC) near Florence, South Carolina, received the funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The project will run through January 2029.
Sorghum, commonly known as milo, is widely used in livestock feed and pet food and is gaining renewed attention as a hardy alternative to corn. It requires less water, performs well on marginal soils and is not genetically modified. But most commercially available hybrids were bred for other regions, leaving Southeastern farmers with limited choices adapted to their climate and disease pressures.
The project will focus on breeding parent lines resistant to anthracnose and grain mold, two fungal diseases that can significantly reduce yields. Researchers will also develop hybrids tolerant to certain post-emergence herbicides, allowing growers to control invasive grasses without damaging the crop.
“Farmers in our region need sorghum hybrids that possess more than just yield potential,” said Boyles, who has previously released new sorghum parents for commercial hybrid production. “They need new traits that can prevent yield and profit loss from the two main biotic stressors: disease and grass weeds.
Source : clemson.edu