Three’s the charm for growers’ sorghum seeds

As growers reflect on the tough conditions from the last few years, the importance of sorghum products that can perform during dryer periods continues to be a priority – particularly in the eastern states.

For Cambooya-based grower Jason Charles, variety was key when approaching last year’s summer sorghum crop, and as a result of the reliability he’d come to expect from Toowoomba-based company Pacific Seeds, he turned to three of their products, MR-Bazley, MR- Buster, and MR-Taurus.

Mr Charles said that while all three performed well despite the less-than ideal weather conditions he was most impressed with how MR-Bazley was able to perform on dry land.

MR-Bazley’s demonstrated performance through harsh conditions has established its reputation amongst growers as the best choice for tougher environments.

“We’ve been growing MR-Buster for over ten years but hadn’t grown MR-Bazley before, so we thought we’d give it a try and we were really happy with the results,” said Mr Charles.

“In the end the MR-Bazley yield came out to nearly nine tonnes per hectare, across a 16 hectare block. We’ll certainly give it another go given that result.

“It had a nice big head, stood up really well, was easy to harvest, nice clean simple – same as our experience with using MR-Buster.”

MR-Buster is a grain sorghum hybrid that has proven to be reliable across all sorghum growing regions. The dependable medium maturity grain sorghum is suitable for dryland and irrigated fields and delivers on both narrow and wider row configurations.

“We also gave MR-Taurus a crack that same year and ended up taking second place at the RASQ Toowoomba Show with a yield of 9,213 metric tonne per hectare at 13.5 per cent moisture – which was outstanding,” said Mr Charles.

“It was a tough year, really dry, so it was a fantastic result considering the conditions we were working with.”

MR-Taurus offers growers industry-leading yield potential in a highly reliable, medium-quick maturity hybrid. Widely known as an all-rounder, MR-Taurus will perform in all growing regions and its solid stress tolerance helps to protect yield under tougher conditions.

“We really liked the standability or MR-Taurus and it was this great rich red colour – overall we were pleased with it, and I think it’s a good option for those dryer periods because we didn’t have to use a lot of water,” said Mr Charles.

“In that same period, MR-Buster went really well under a bit of irrigation and after more than a decade using it, we find it to be a reliable option and we’ll continue to keep it as a part of our rotations.

Pictured above: The Charles family visiting the Pacific Seeds exhibit at Farm Fest.