DuPont Pioneer introduces two new sorghum hybrids

DuPont Pioneer introduces two new sorghum hybrids for 2014:

• Pioneer® hybrid 86P20 is a 63RM hybrid with strong stress tolerance and early maturity rating.
• Pioneer hybrid 85P05 has a 68RM rating, with excellent yield under stress and very good performance on the High Plains and in Kansas. This hybrid has above-average stalk lodging scores.

“Global sorghum testing allows Pioneer to develop products like these to meet challenges growers are facing now,” says Doug Pilkington, DuPont Pioneer sorghum marketing manager. “These new hybrids are also the result of our efforts to develop high-yielding solutions for U.S. grain sorghum producers.”

Growers planting Pioneer brand sorghum hybrids recently won four of seven first-place finishes and 12 of the 21 national categories in the 2013 National Sorghum Producers (NSP) Yield and Management Contest. Seven of those growers won national finishes with Pioneer sorghum hybrid 84G62. Growers planting Pioneer sorghum hybrids also captured 63 percent of all state category placements.

Pioneer sorghum research is worldwide in scope, yet focused on local adaptation. Pioneer has three sorghum research stations in the United States and seven additional stations in sorghum-growing regions around the world. Each station is located in an environment where disease, insect or climatic constraints can be evaluated. Testing occurs in more than 100,000 yield plots at 60 locations in four countries.

The Pioneer sorghum research efforts are led by Dr. Kay Porter, director of sorghum research, from Plainview, Texas. The research program at Plainview focuses on developing hybrids adapted to dryland production areas of the High Plains and western Kansas. The Pioneer station in Manhattan, Kan., develops sorghum hybrids for growers in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, southern Illinois and eastern Missouri. The Taft, Texas, research station is responsible for developing hybrids for the southern United States and northern Mexico.