Grain sorghum (sometimes called “milo”) is a summer annual grass.  Visually it resembles corn, and is processed into biofuels using the same technique.  Grain sorghum seeds are round in shape, yellow-to-reddish in color, and develop in a cluster at the top of the plant (in contrast to the more oval-shaped yellow seed that develop in ears on the corn plant). 

The high starch content of the seed makes it a potential feedstock crop for fermentation into ethanol.  Grain sorghum currently has few markets, leading to its limited production in North Carolina.  Demand from future fermentation ethanol plants will potentially increase its production.

Although grain sorghum lacks the yield potential of corn, it requires significantly less water and nutrient inputs, and therefore could become a viable rotation crop in certain soils.  Breeding new high-yield, drought-resistant hybrids can make grain sorghum a profitable crop for farmers and an economical feedstock for ethanol producers.

Grain sorghum, North Carolina Biofuels Campus, Oxford, September 2009