The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) released its first-ever Early Harvest Sorghum Quality Report this week, showing that 92 percent of U.S. sorghum samples are rated at quality grade No. 2 or better. The Council is now in the process of presenting these results worldwide.

“We will take the results of this report to our sorghum customers around the world and highlight the condition of the U.S. crop,� said USGC Senior Director of Global Strategies Kurt Shultz. “With this report, we hope to give these buyers a better understanding of how the sorghum crop is marketed in the United States and how it flows to the export terminals.�

Total U.S. sorghum production for 2015 is estimated at 594 million bushels (15.0 million metric tons), with more than half of this production headed for overseas destinations, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released in December 2015.

“The sorghum quality report is essential to giving market information to international buyers about the condition and availability of U.S sorghum,� Shultz said. “The international grain trade is a market of opportunity, and the more transparency you have in a market related to price or quality, the better educated the buyer is and better able to make informed purchasing decisions.�

Though the harvest quality report is valuable information to customers, sorghum quality will be affected by further handling. In January 2016, the Council will publish a second report, the Sorghum Harvest and Export Cargo Quality Report, to assess the quality of U.S. sorghum during the final half of the 2015 sorghum harvest season and as it is assembled for export.

The two reports are intended to provide reliable, timely and transparent information on the quality of the U.S. crop as it moves through export channels and, over time, use consistent methodology to permit the assessment of trends.

Click here to view a PDF of the 2015/2016 Sorghum Early Harvest Quality Report.