Looking Back to 2024 – an Atypical Year for Sorghum

The year 2024 was not at all smooth sailing, to French sorghum producers. From planting through harvest, weather conditions complicated the crop’s development. A look back to a production year that had a lot of lessons to learn from.

With almost 125 000 hectares – of which 35 000 for feed production -, France’s sorghum saw a sharp area increase in 2024. “This was partly due to the difficult crop establishment in the autumn of 2023, which left a lot of areas fallow, in the following spring”, Aude Carrera, industry expert with the Arvalis Institute, notes. With 38 percent of the country’s total grain area, the Midi-Pyrénées region continues to lead, standing before the Aquitaine (29 percent) and the Centre region (15 percent) – which has made good progress this year.

Crop Growth not Favoured Much at Planting

In terms of yields, the country’s average stood at 48.7 q/ha – as against an average 50.8 q/ha between 2018 and 2023⁽¹⁾ -, with sharp regional disparities, as production results were higher in the northern regions compared to the southern ones. Crop establishment was delayed everywhere, as a result of ongoing rainfalls. For the first round of plantings, weather conditions did not favour growth much and the weeding windows were few. Damage caused by soil pests – wireworms and slugs – was more significant. It was a difficult crop start, followed by complex summer weather: constant rainfalls until mid-July, then absent until mid-August. During the summer, temperatures dropped to relatively low levels compared to the norm, whilst heat peaks were few and far between. The sunlight level was below normal. “In the end, flowering was delayed and harvests were carried out later”, Aude Carrera says. “Certain plots failed to reach crop maturity, making it difficult or even impossible to harvest”.

Panicle Accidents: More Frequent in 2024

Another characteristic of 2024: many “fertility” accidents, manifested by missing grains in panicles or abnormal, poorly-filled, or deformed grains. “In the South-West region, 5 to 15 percent of sorghum areas were damaged, causing yield losses of as much as 50+ percent”, Aude Carrera says. “Conversely, the Rhône-Alpes or the Centre-Val de Loire regions seem to have been spared. In an attempt to explain the phenomenon, we carried out a survey among one hundred farmers. What we found was that the causes were most likely diverse and sometimes more than one, on the same plot.” While part of these symptoms can be attributed to the presence of Heliothis – the “chewing” traces providing undeniable proof in that sense –, that is not always the case. Among other reasons, the expert mentioned the damage caused by other pests, such as the cereal bug, for instance, or weather hazards at key growth stages: cold at the time of flower bud formation, or high temperatures during flowering. Planting dates may equally have played a part, as the areas that were planted later seem to have been less impacted. However, the phenomenon also occurred in crops that were planted earlier – which makes it difficult to detect the exact causes. Another hypothesis is the phytotoxicity stemming from hormone-based herbicide treatments done too late on already well-developed crops, followed by high temperatures. “The most likely explanation is that we are dealing with a combination of factors”, she concludes. The survey should continue into 2025, to extend the observation on new production areas and thus collect a maximum amount of data.

⁽¹⁾Source: Agreste