SORGHUM News Release with Audio                 

Ethanol Plant Construction Progressing in the Sorghum Belt       

Ethanol plant construction outside the Corn Belt is progressing and giving sorghum producers like Glenn Schur a reason for optimism. Schur farms near Plainview, Texas where a 100 million gallon per year (MGY) ethanol plant is being built.

"It's definitely going to help the sorghum producers in our area," said Schur. "It's going to give us a market. The original plan was for all railed-in corn, and now what I understand that they have inquired through some of the local elevators to use some local grain."

Boyd Funk farms near Garden City, Kan. and has similar hopes about increased grain sorghum prices in his area.

"I'm hoping that it will make corn and sorghum the same price. Right now, sorghum is about 30 cents under the corn price, and it would be nice to see that narrow up a little bit. I think it's going to help sorghum producers in particular," said Funk. "They're going to have to bring in corn, and so its just going to help our basis."

Already, Kansas has 215 MGY of production capacity that has historically utilized more sorghum than corn. According to the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association, there are four ethanol plants under construction in the state with a combined production capacity of 235 MGY. Plants in Nebraska, New Mexico and Colorado utilize grain sorghum as well. In Texas, four plants are under construction with a combined capacity of 340 MGY with two of those plants being built by White Energy.

The company's Chief Operating Officer, John Neufeld, said that local sorghum production will be important to their plants in Texas, just as it has been at their Russell, Kan. location.

"Our strategy, relative to the marketplace, is to build our plants at destination sites where we are close to the markets for our ethanol and to the markets for our distiller's grains," said Neufeld. "The cattle in and around the Plainview and Hereford area will consume our distiller's grain in a fashion where we won't have to dry them. We've made preparations so that if we need more grain than can be grown locally, we can bring unit trains of grain in from anywhere in the states where they have more than enough. And then of course, there is local grain in both of those areas, and in a year like this where we've got good moisture and good value, we expect people to grow a lot."

Neufeld speaks from experience when it comes to utilizing sorghum to produce ethanol. The company's Kansas plant has been a mainstay sorghum buyer.

"The plant in Russell's been operational since late 2001. It's been an extremely efficient plant. We process, essentially, only milo as our raw material. Corn comes in occasionally from Nebraska and other points, but it is essentially a milo plant," said Neufeld.

"The quality of our distiller's grains is the same as the quality of anybody else's distiller's grains and it's readily accepted. We've got good ethanol, good ethanol yields from the sorghum, and great efficiencies in our plant. In the Russell plant, we also have a wheat-gluten plant associated with it. The third of the starch that goes into the ethanol plant is blended in with the milo as wheat starch."

Neufeld said that company's Hereford and Plainview, Texas plants will use rail effectively, both in bringing in additional feed grains and in shipping out ethanol. 

"They're both very efficient plants. Both of them are going to be working with unit trains. When we bring grain in for both of the plants, they're going to be coming in trains of 100 cars dedicated entirely to the facility. When we produce ethanol, we're going to be able to ship unit trains of ethanol out, as well, in full trainload quantities and that is going to give us a substantial amount of efficiency, more than most ethanol plants have. Our focus here is primarily to satisfy the Texas market and make sure that there is enough ethanol to satisfy demand in Texas."

NSP represents U.S. sorghum producers. Headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, in the heart of the U.S. Sorghum Belt that stretches from the Rockies to the Mississippi River and from South Texas to South Dakota, the organization works to ensure the profitability of sorghum production through market development, research, education and legislative representation. To learn more about NSP, visit www.sorghumgrowers.com.  

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Audio Files:    

with Glenn Schur (sure)

       Boyd Funk

       John Neufeld (new-feld)

  Cut #1     :17     nsp-plantprogress-schur-1        O.C...use some local grain."

  Cut #2     :16     nsp-plantprogress-funk-2          O.C..."help our basis."        

  Cut #3     :34     nsp-plantprogress-neufeld-3      O.C..."people to grow a lot."    

  Cut #4     :40     nsp-plantprogress-neufeld-4      O.C..."milo as wheat starch."    

  Cut #5     :30     nsp-plantprogress-neufeld-5      O.C..."demand in Texas."