The Wonderful World of Sorghum: An Overview of my Internship

Howdy and welcome! My name is Kathleen Hill and with this first entry, I’d like to give a little background about myself and the purpose of this blog.

To begin with, I am a senior horticulture major at Texas A&M University (Whoop!) with a study emphasis in fruit and vegetable production and management. I actually came to A&M as a biomedical sciences student with the intension of becoming a small animal veterinarian, but plans changed and I ended up in horticulture, and I’ve loved every minute of it! To those who may be wondering, horticulture, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is a branch of agriculture concerned with the cultivation of garden plants—generally fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamentals.¹ Horticulture is a broad field with many career possibilities ranging from managing a nursery to landscaping to floristry to research. I myself am hoping to work for Texas AgriLife Extension as a county extension agent after graduation.

Now on to the meat of the post: the purpose of my blog. This blog will function as a chronicle of my activities as an intern for Texas AgriLife Research’s Sorghum Breeding Program.

Welcome to Sorghum Breeding!

What is sorghum, you might be asking. It’s a grain, like wheat or corn, that is grown worldwide. Sorghum is drought and heat tolerant making it an efficient crop. Here in the United States it’s used mostly as livestock feed and to produce ethanol.² However, use of sorghum in food products is on the rise because it is naturally gluten-free. It can also be popped and eaten, like popcorn.³ The sorghum breeding program focuses on crossing sorghum lines to create genetically superior hybrids. They are bred for everything from pathogen resistance to higher quality grain to lodging resistance.



Sorghum field

I’ve actually been working for this program since February as a student worker and up till now my main responsibilities have been preparing seed to be planted, preparing the field, and then actually planting the sorghum. The duration of my internship is from June 2^st to August 1^st, and during that time we will be working with the sorghum doing a variety of tasks like thinning plots, irrigating the fields, taking notes, pollinating, and eventually harvesting the grain. I intend to post weekly about what we’ve been doing so feel free to check back for updates about my internship.

 

 

References:

¹ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horticulture

² http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/31/231509864/heat-drought-draw-farmers-back-to-sorghum-the-camel-of-crops

³ http://sorghumgrowers.com/sorghum-101/