In addition to standard BMR 6 gene forage sorghums and sorghum-sudan crosses, Phillips Seed offers photoperiod sensitive, male sterile, and brachytic dwarf hybrids.
Photoperiod Sensitive (PS) hybrids initiate heading in response to day length, as opposed to accumulated heat units. Phillips Seed’s BMR PS hybrid sorghum-sudan cross, BMR 63, is a long day plant, meaning it will not ini- tiate heading until the day length is less than 12.5 hours. It will remain vegetative until almost mid September, providing growers with a wider window of opportunity to harvest quality, non-mature forage.
Male sterile hybrids, such as Phillips BMR 64 hybrid forage sorghum, do not produce pollen for self fertilization. If there is no nearby pollen source to cross pollinate, then male sterile hybrids will produce no grain. All the sugars and proteins stay in the leaves and stalks instead of moving into the grain – thereby maintaining the digestibility and palatability of the whole plant.
Brachytic dwarf forages, such as Phillips BMR 60D hybrid forage sorghum and BMR 68D hybrid sorghum-sudan cross, offer top forage quality with superior standability. Brachytic dwarf types stand because they have dramatically shortened internodes, resulting in comparable yields due to almost double the number of leaves per foot of plant and increased number of tillers. The leaves are normal sized, but the extremely short spaces between the leaves deliver a much higher leaf to stalk ratio for improved feed quality and palatability.
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