About this episode

The episode discusses the potential of sorghum as a dairy forage and recent advancements in its processing.

Sorghum costs less to plant and requires less water to generate productive tonnages. For years, sorghum has been ignored as a dairy forage, because the starch filled berry was nearly impossible to process, limiting the energy available to the cow. To combat this issue a male sterile bmr dwarf variety was developed with no grain head as an opportunity to harvest a nutrient dense, resilient leafy forage. Researcher Juan Pineiro, Associate Professor & Extension Dairy Specialist at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo and his team substituted a portion of corn silage in the TMR with sorghum silage to determine the feasibility of this forage for dairy farms. The team found an improvement in dry matter intake which resulted in a nearly 8lb increase in milk produced when substituting 25% of the corn silage with headless sorghum silage. To compensate for the decrease in dietary starch, Dr. Pineiro added ground corn into the ration to balance energy. Additionally, Dr. Pineiro drew our attention to the recent advancements in berry processing for the non-sterile varieties. “We were able to see 0-1% intact berries remaining with the recently patented…

People in this episode

Guest: Juan Pineiro

Topics covered

• sorghum
• dairy forage
• corn silage
• milk production
• forage processing

Keywords

• sorghum
• dairy
• forage
• corn silage
• milk production
• processing
• bmr dwarf variety

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center

More episodes of Dairy Science Digest

• DSD 7.5 | Impact of A2 milk on cheese production · May 19, 2026 · 30 min
• DSD 7.3 | Generate More Grade 1 Embryos · March 16, 2026 · 32 min
• DSD 7.1 | Deliver more protein to the herd at a lower cost through microbial efficiency · January 16, 2026 · 31 min
• DSD 6.12 | Brachytic corn for increased production · December 16, 2025 · 28 min
• Spotify DSD 6.11 | The sweet spot - Insemination timing for peak profit · November 23, 2025 · 36 min
• DSD 6.11 | The sweet spot - Insemination timing for peak profit · November 17, 2025 · 36 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Dairy Science Digest podcast page.