Golden Milo vs Black Gold
by Janette Boyd
Title
Golden Milo vs Black Gold
Artist
Janette Boyd
Medium
Photograph - Photo/texture
Description
Photo of grain sorghum (nickname=milo) being harvested along side of black gold being pumped out of same ground near Chase, Kansas.
Texture courtesy of FAA Artist, Pamela Phelps.
http://pinesingerimages.zenfolio.com/
A grain sorghum plant looks a lot like a corn plant but is shorter and more colorful. The head grows on the top of the plant and is white, yellow, red or bronze. Grain sorghum is one of the primary crops grown in Kansas. Kansas produces more grain sorghum than any other state in the United States. Grain sorghum is well suited for Kansas because it doesn�t require a lot of water and it grows well during the long, hot summers. Most grain sorghum is not irrigated.
Farmers plant grain sorghum seeds in rows during the spring (May � June) and harvest it in the fall (September � November). Growth is not very rapid until the plant is about 10 inches tall.
Leaves are a brilliant green in the spring and summer but begin to turn light brown in the fall. When the seeds that formed on the head ripen and turn hard, it is harvest time. When the grain sorghum plant reaches maturity and is ready for harvest it is approximately four feet high.
Farmers use "combines" to harvest their grain sorghum. The combine cuts the head off the stalk and threshes or removes the seeds. The combine is then emptied into a storage bin. Grain is stored in the bins at the correct temperature and moisture content until it is sold to farmers for animal feed or seed for next year, to industries for food or non-food uses, or for export to another country. While most other grains are sold by the bushel, grain sorghum is commonly sold by the hundred weight (increments of 100 pounds).
It is likely that the ancestors of today�s cereal grains once grew among the wild plants of Africa, including the African native, grain sorghum. Known as one of the oldest crops, the first seeds may have been brought into the United States during the late 1700s on slave ships. It is believed that Benjamin Franklin introduced the first grain sorghum crop to the United States.
Uploaded
January 12th, 2014
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