Wednesday, November 7, 2007
308-4

Simulated Sorghum Grain and Biomass Yield, Water Use, Soil Erosion and Carbon Evolution, and Potential Ethanol Production in Central and South Texas.

Manyowa N. Meki1, Armen Kemanian2, Jurg Blumenthal3, Evelyn Steglich2, Wyatte Harman4, and Giovanni Piccinni5. (1) Blackland Research and Extension Center, Texas AgriLife Research, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502, (2) Texas A&M University TAES, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple, TX 79502, (3) Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, (4) Texas Agricultural Experiment Station-Blackland Research Center, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502, (5) Texas A&M University Research & Extention Center, Texas A&M Univ. Res. & Ext. Ctr., 1619 Garner Field Rd., Uvalde, TX 78801-6205

Bioenergy crops are an attractive alternative to traditional cropping systems with potential economic and environmental benefits. Sorghum grain and biomass yield potential for typical central and south Texas sorghum cropping systems is currently being assessed using the simulation model EPIC. Simulation results will be available for a 45-year time series for central and south Texas. The simulations consider local weather, soils, and crop management practices including tillage and irrigation. A database summarizing major outputs will be available online. The following results were preliminarily obtained for sorghum grain and forage yields simulated over the time period 1961-2005 at six locations (Corpus Christi, Uvalde, Temple, Denton, College Station and Harlingen) and under two irrigation scenarios: (1) simulated grain yields under dryland ranged from 2 to 6 Mg/ha; (2) maximum grain yields were always achieved with less than 610 mm of seasonal irrigation; (3) maximum irrigated biomass production reached ~30 Mg/ha.