Water Use Efficiency of Energy Sorghum in Texas

Abstract

<abstract> <bold>Abstract.</bold> The production of bioenergy crops is directly related with the amount of biomass produced and with water use. The objective of this project was to 1) to quantify yield responses to water for three sorghum hybrids (two forage sorghum and one energy sorghum and; 2) to generate baseline information to calibrate a crop model for energy sorghum simulating water inputs. The yield response sorghum to four water levels was evaluated for two sudan hybrids (Pioner 877F, and Blade 5140) and one hybrid sorghum energy hybrid (Blade ES5200). This study was conducted as a factorial design with four water level treatments (one, two, three and four irrigations applied with a furrow irrigation system) and three replications per treatment. The sorghum forage hybrid ES5140 with double row produced as high yield and high biomass as the energy sorghum hybrid ES5200. The forage variety ES5140 could offer some flexibility and be used for both energy and forage production.