{"id":9079,"date":"2024-08-29T11:55:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=9079"},"modified":"2024-08-29T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:56:00","slug":"researchers-document-animals-preference-for-purdue-patented-sorghum-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q3\/researchers-document-animals-preference-for-purdue-patented-sorghum-technology","title":{"rendered":"Researchers document animals\u2019 preference for Purdue-patented sorghum technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 A sorghum technology developed at Purdue University improves crop and animal safety. New research confirms that it appeals to the taste buds of grazing ewes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorghum is a resilient forage crop because it tolerates heat and drought. However, it produces the metabolite dhurrin, which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide, a substance also called prussic acid that is toxic to livestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A research team led by Mitch Tuinstra, the Wickersham Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Research and professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue\u2019s Department of Agronomy<\/a>, developed the prussic acid-free sorghum that can ease the minds of farmers concerned about feeding forage sorghum to their animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purdue-based research<\/a> featured on the June 2024 cover of Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management shows that the new sorghum technology also improves palatability. Based on differences between pre- and post-grazing forage mass and measurements from drones, the researchers confirmed that ewes not only preferred grazing on the prussic acid-free hybrid over conventional sorghum hybrids, but they also were able to detect and selectively feed on the preferred plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lead author of the article is Tuinstra\u2019s former PhD student Shelby Gruss, now an assistant professor of agronomy and the state forage specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuinstra\u2019s research team developed the prussic acid-free sorghum technology in 2001. As primary investigator, Tuinstra disclosed the technology to the Purdue Research Foundation’s<\/a> Office of Technology Commercialization<\/a>, which applied for and received a patent for it in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay Hulbert, president and CEO of Ag Alumni Seed<\/a>, was brought in to help explore the technology\u2019s potential commercialization. Hulbert\u2019s company produces high-performance popcorn hybrids, but the nonprofit Purdue affiliate also provides expertise and funding to move Purdue\u2019s value-added crop traits to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planting prussic acid-free sorghum would increase farmers\u2019 ability to manage toxicity risk in livestock when using sorghum forages. \u201cI thought this was a groundbreaking idea,\u201d Hulbert said. \u201cThe worst thing in the world for somebody in animal agriculture is to do something that causes harm to their animals. In parts of the U.S. where drought and high temperatures are becoming more and more of a problem, this could enhance the ability of farmers to provide high-quality feed for their livestock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ag Alumni Seed funded efforts to develop and test prototype varieties at Purdue before licensing the technology to S&W Seed Co.<\/a>, where testing is underway on sorghum hybrids that incorporate the trait. Seed will be widely available in 2025, said Scott Staggenborg, sorghum product marketing director at S&W.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On S&W\u2019s test fields, another animal might have given the Purdue researchers an inkling of the ewes\u2019 munching preferences, albeit an unscientific one. Texas jackrabbits found small plots of prussic acid-free sorghum amid S&W\u2019s much larger sorghum fields, and every night they ate the new growth while leaving the traditional sorghum untouched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese rabbits traveled 1,000 feet to find this stuff, and then they kept coming back to it,\u201d Staggenborg said. \u201cWe recently had a similar experience with Kansas State University researchers. They were bewildered that a plot that looked great one day was \u2018disappearing.\u2019 It was jackrabbits again.\u201d He believes their behavior predicted results of the palatability studies that Gruss conducted with sheep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prussic acid-free hybrids were shown to perform as well as conventional hybrids, with high forage accumulation and similar nutritive value. \u201cOutside of the fact that it doesn\u2019t have prussic acid, which is dangerous, it is more palatable. As we get ready to bring this to the market, we talk about all these features,\u201d Staggenborg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He expects high demand among growers. \u201cWe have people that have tried to put in large orders for the past two years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also have customers in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil who are excited about planting prussic acid-free hybrids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S&W will improve the hybrids by adding select insect and disease tolerances. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continually add other traits that enhance the value around this one, but the base is going to be prussic acid-free,\u201d Staggenborg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Indiana is not a leader in U.S. sorghum production, Purdue\u2019s role in developing prussic acid-free sorghum has potential impact worldwide, said Tuinstra, who estimates that more than 40 million hectares of sorghum are grown for grain and forage production globally. \u201cSorghum is No. 5 in the world for cereals,\u201d he said. And given its resilience, future Indiana farmers may well grow more sorghum as the climate warms, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prussic acid-free sorghum will be showcased at the 75th anniversary<\/a> celebration of Purdue\u2019s Agronomy Center for Research and Education<\/a> on Sept. 6, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Media contact:<\/strong> Devyn Raver, draver@purdue.edu<\/a>
Agricultural Communications:<\/strong>\u00a0765-494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu<\/a> \u00a0
<\/strong>Agriculture News Page<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 A sorghum technology developed at Purdue University improves crop and animal safety. New research confirms that it appeals to the taste buds of grazing ewes. Sorghum is a resilient forage crop because it tolerates heat and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":8986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[187],"class_list":["post-9079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9082,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079\/revisions\/9082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}