What is SWEET SORGHUM?

Sweet sorghum is any of the many varieties of the sorghum plant which has a high sugar content. Sweet sorghum is a type of grass that thrives better under drier and warmer conditions than many other crops and is grown primarily for forage, silage, and syrup production.

CULTIVATION

Sweet sorghum has been widely cultivated in the U.S. since the 1850s for use in sweeteners, primarily in the form of sorghum syrup. By the early 1900s, the U.S. produced 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of sweet sorghum syrup annually. Making syrup from sorghum (as from sugar cane) is heavily labor intensive. Following World War II, with the declining availability of farm labor, sorghum syrup production fell drastically. Currently, less than 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3) are produced annually in the U.S.

Most sorghum grown for syrup production is grown in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee.