Sorghum bicolor logogriph,broomcorn, durra, forage sorghum, grain sorghum, great millet, Kaffir-corn, milo, shallu sorghum, sweet sorghum,Milo,sorgo, gros mil, sorgho,daza, sorgo forrajero?

Uses in Common of Grain Sorghum.:

Sorghum bicolor Extract Sorghum bicolor Moench photo picture image Worldwide, sorghum is a food grain for humans. In the United States, sorghum is used primarily as a feed grain for livestock. Feed value of grain sorghum is similar to corn. The grain has more protein and fat than corn, but is lower in vitamin A. When compared with corn on a per pound basis, grain sorghum feeding value ranges from 90% to nearly equal to corn. The grain is highly palatable to livestock, and intake seldom limits livestock productivity. However, some sorghum varieties and hybrids which were developed to deter birds are less palatable due to tannins and phenolic compounds in the seed. The grain should be cracked or rolled before feeding to cattle; this improves the portion digested.

Pasturing cattle or sheep on sorghum stubble, after the grain has been harvested, is a common practice. Both roughage and dropped heads are utilized. Stubble with secondary growth must be pastured carefully because of the danger of prussic acid (HCN) poisoning.

Grain sorghum may also be used as whole-plant silage, however another sorghum, sweet sorghum, was developed as a silage crop. Sweet sorghum produces much higher forage yields than grain sorghum, but feed quality will likely be lesser because there is no grain. Some growers mix grain sorghum with soybeans to produce a higher protein silage crop.
Sorghum bicolor Extract Sorghum bicolor Moench photo picture image

Forage sorghums are used primarily as silage for livestock. They are sometimes grown and harvested with soybeans to improve the protein content of the silage. Sudangrasses and sorghum-sudangrass hybrids are grazed by livestock or fed as green chop or hay.

Sorghum harvested at the soft dough stage of development and stored as silage contains 52 to 65% dry matter digestibility, 8 to 12% crude protein, 60 to 75% neutral detergent fiber, and 34 to 40% acid detergent fiber. The higher the grain content, the higher the digestibility. Ensiled grain has a digestibility of about 90%.

Forage sorghum usually produces as much silage per acre as corn. However, sorghum silage contains less grain and is higher in fiber than corn silage. Though the protein content of sorghum silage is similar to or slightly higher than that of corn, it is less digestible. Animal consumption of sorghum silage is also generally somewhat less than that of corn.

To obtain the optimum rate of gain for most livestock, sorghum silage must be supplemented with protein, minerals and vitamins. It is generally suggested that sorghum silage constitute not more than 50% of the forage in dairy cow rations but may be adequate alone for other categories of animals.

Sorghum plants, particularly young plants, contain an alkaloid which releases hydrocyanic, or prussic acid, when hydrolized. This can be toxic to livestock. Young plants, branches in the leaf axils of injured plants and new shoots from the crown at the soil surface contain more than twice as much acid as the mature leaves of normal plants. When the crop is cut and field-cured, or is ensiled, and the hydrocyanic acid degrades (2 to 3 weeks after ensiling), and the danger is greatly reduced. Sudangrass contains less than half as much hydrocyanic acid as most sorghums. A low-acid Sudangrass variety (Piper) was released by researchers in Wisconsin.

During periods of drought or other plant stress, sorghums tend to accumulate nitrates, which can poison livestock. If retarded crop growth is observed, analyze the forage for excessive nitrates before feeding it. In the case of high nitrate levels, the forage should be ensiled or combined with other feeds low in nitrate to reduce daily nitrate intake.

Uses and cultural aspects:Sorghum bicolor is an important crop providing food and fodder in the semi-arid tropics of the world. It is a staple food for more than 500 million people in more than 30 countries, although maize has to some extent replaced its use in southern africa.. It has been used in the production of alcohol. The whole plant is used for forage, hay or silage. The stem of some types is used for building; fencing, weaving, broom making and firewood. Industrially it can be used for vegetable oil, waxes and dyes.
Sorghum bicolor Extract Sorghum bicolor Moench photo picture image

Sorghum is very important in the world's human diet, with over 300 million people dependent on it (Bukantis, 1980). Grown for grain, forage, syrup and sugar, and industrial uses of stems and fibers. Grain sorghum is a staple cereal in hot dry tropics, the threshed grain ground into a wholesome flour. Stalks used as animal feed. Important summer fodder where temperatures are high and rainfall insufficient for corn. Most important for silage or green soiling, or for hay when grown irrigated in very dry areas. Pearled grain cooked like rice or ground into flour. Sorghum, with large juicy stems containing as much as 10% sucrose, used in manufacture of syrup; sugar can be manufactured from sorghum. Broomcorn used for making brooms. The seed is used as food, in brewing "kiffir beer", the kiffir corn malt and cornmeal is fermented to make Leting (a sour mash), the pith is eaten, and the sweet culm chewed (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Arubans make porridge and muffins from sorghum meal.
Parched seed are used as coffee substitutes or adulterants.

Folk Medicine Use:

Reported to be antiabortive, cyanogenetic, demulcent, diuretic, emollient, intoxicant, and poison, sorghum is a folk remedy for cancer, epilepsy, flux, and stomachache (Duke and Wain, 1981). The root is used for malaria in southern Rhodesia; the seed has been used for breast disease and diarrhea; the stem for tubercular swellings. In India, the plant is considered anthelminthic and insecticidal, and in South Africa, in combination with Erigeron canadense L., it is used for eczema (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). In China, where the seeds are used to make alcohol, the seed husk is braised in brown sugar with a little water and applied to the chest of measles patients. The stomachic seeds are considered beneficial in fluxes (Perry, 1980). According to Morton (1981) Curacao natives drink the leaf decoction for measles, grinding the seeds with those of the calabash tree (Cresentia) for lung ailments. Venezuelans toast and pulverize the seeds for diarrhea. Brazilians decoct the seed for bronchitis, cough and other chest ailments, possibly using the ash for goiter. Arubans poultice hot oil packs of the seeds on the back of those suffering pulmonary congestion. According to Grieve's Herbal (1931), a decoction of ca 50 g seed to a liter of water is boiled down to ca 1/2 liter as a folk medication for kidney and urinary complaints.

Reference:

1.Sorghum bicolor logogriph,broomcorn, durra, forage sorghum, grain sorghum, great millet, Kaffir-corn, milo, shallu sorghum, sweet sorghum,Milo,sorgo, gros mil, sorgho,daza, sorgo forrajero?

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:22nd,Oct.2010.