Agronomic and Test Information: Weslaco s1

AGRONOMIC AND TEST INFORMATION: LAMESA

This project was made possible through producer funding received from the United Sorghum Checkoff Program

TEST: 2009 Dryland Grain Sorghum Performance Test

LOCATION: AG-CARES/Lamesa Cotton Growers, Lamesa, Texas (~60 miles south of Lubbock)

COOPERATORS: Dr. Calvin Trostle, Extension agronomist, Sean Wallace, Danny Carmichael

SOIL TYPE: Amarillo fine sandy loam

ROW WIDTH: 40”

PREVIOUS CROP: Cotton

LAND PREPARATION: Rolling stalk cutter, lister

DATE PLANTED: 6-24-09 with cones mounted on a JD Max-Emerge planter

SEEDING RATE: 32,700 (~2.5 seeds per foot of 40” rows)

PLOT LENGTH: 4 rows X 25’

FERTILIZER: None

HERBICIDE: Atrazine, 0.75 quarts/A

INSECTICIDE: None

RAINFALL: May, 1.4” (accumulating soil moisture); June, 6.2”; July, 4.9”, August, 0.5”; September, 0.9”; October 1-12, 0.2” (available to longer maturity hybrids)—Seasonal rainfall, May-September, 13.9”.

IRRIGATION: None

DATE HARVESTED: 11/17-18/09 SIZE HARVESTED PLOT: 2 rows X 22’

TEST DESIGN: Randomized complete block

NUMBER ENTRIES: 36

NUMBER REPLICATIONS: 4 (some hybrids 3 reps due to bird feeding on west end of trial)

NUMBER ROWS/PLOT: 4

TEST MEAN: 2,662 lbs./A; yield corrected to 14% moisture

TEST YIELD C.V.: 16.3% (Reported %CV excludes the lowest yielding entry, which had an individual rep. as low as 311 lbs./A. Including this long- season hybrid in %CV increased CV to 20.6%.)

COMMENTS: Initial stands were satisfactory, but due to planting the sorghum on top of beds, some hybrids had trouble standing as the brace roots had trouble penetrating the soil (hotter and drier on the top of the bed), but timely cultivation place sufficient soil around the base of the plants to establish a good brace root system.

Plant populations were regarded as near optimum for this type of dryland production, about 2/3 of planted seed becoming viable plants. This plant population in other test has demonstrated the ability to produce 4,000 lbs./A or more yield when conditions are favorable. One fault of this test is the lack of N fertilization which could potentially lead to a significant increase in yield.

Significant deep soil moisture was stored during June and July which carried the crop through August and September flowering and seed maturation where rainfall (1.4”) was about 1/3 of long the long-term average.

Sucker head tillering was minimal to non-existent for most hybrids though a few hybrids had significant later season tillers although the end of the season minimized their interference with any possible harvest for this particular crop year.

*** For further information about this report, contact Dr. Calvin Trostle, extension agronomist, Lubbock, (806) 746-6101, [email protected] For further information about the Texas AgriLife Research Crop Testing program, contact Mr. Dennis Pietsch, Crop Testing Director, Texas AgriLife Research, College Station, TX, (979) 845-8505, [email protected] Please visit the Crop Testing webpage at http://varietytesting.tamu.edu