Simulated Sorghum Grain and Biomass Yield, Water Use, Soil Erosion and Carbon

Evolution, and Potential Ethanol Production in Central and South Texas Blackland Research & Extension Center
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Manyowa N. Meki 1, Armen R. Kemanian1, Evelyn Steglich1, Wyatte Harman1, Giovanni Piccinni2 and Thomas Gerik1
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Texas A&M University System
1
Blackland Research and Extension Center, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple, Texas 76502-9622
2
Uvalde Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1619 Garner Field Road, Ulvalde, Texas 78801-6205

Introduction Results: Model Testing Results: Simulated Environmental Impacts

Table 1. Summary of hydrological and nitrogen related losses for three regions in Texas.
Figure 1. Simulated and measured
 Bioenergy crops are an attractive alternative to traditional cropping 10 sorghum grain yield in dryland and Runoff Lateral Percolation Nitrogen Denitrification NO3 and NH4 in

Simulated Yield (t/ha)

y = 0.98x + 0.07
systems with potential economic and environmental benefits. 2
R = 0.66
irrigated systems. Sub-Flow Volatilization Percolation
8
mm Kg N ha-1
 Grain sorghum can be a suitable crop for ethanol and biomass 6
Central TX Avg 42 8 197 18 12 24
Min 1 1 65 1 0 1
production in central and south Texas because of its high yield 4 Max 140 48 493 32 31 144
potential, water use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stresses, and St Dev 29 7 85 5 8 26
2
because Texas growers have ample experience managing this crop. South TX Avg 59 4 229 18 5 16
0
Min 0 1 36 6 0 0
 One 0 2 4 6 8 10
bushel of grain sorghum produces the same amount of ethanol as Max 261 29 554 34 28 114
Measured Yield (t/ha)
one bushel of corn (~2.6 gal bushel-1). St Dev 53 3 108 5 7 16

 Currently Valley TX Avg 26 2 132 17 2 14

about 12-20% of the US grain sorghum crop goes into Results: Simulated Sorghum Grain and Biomass Yield for Dryland Min 0 1 5 8 0 1
ethanol production and its co-products. Max 84 9 252 27 17 95
and Irrigated Systems St Dev 23 2 52 4 4 20
30 30
10 Irrigated Dryland Grain Yield (t/ha) Crop Biomass (t/ha) Figure 5. Average yearly change in soil
Objectives
Grain Yield (t/ha) Crop Biomass (t/ha)
25 25
carbon in 610 combinations of soils and
Grain Yield (t/ha)
TOTAL
8 y = 0.0415x + 0.4827
20 2
R = 0.6905 20 cropping systems in Central Texas simulated 100 SLOW

Yield (t/ha)

Yield (t/ha)

Carbon rate of change, kg/ha/yr

6 PASSIVE
15 15 with EPIC, which uses the Century soil
 Simulate grain sorghum and biomass production for typical central 4 10 10 carbon modeling approach.
and south Texas sorghum cropping systems using the biophysical 2 5 y = 0.0251x - 3.3777 5 -100
0 100 200 300 400
model EPIC;
2
R = 0.7396

0 0 0
1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Preliminary soil carbon simulation
 Evaluate potential ethanol production for central and south Texas; Growing Season ET (mm) Growing Season ET(mm)
With the current parameter settings
-300
and Figure 2. Simulated grain Figure 3. Biomass and grain yield of sorghum in response to growing EPIC overestimates carbon
sorghum yield and biomass season evapotranspiration (ET) for dryland (left panel) and irrigated turnover rate. The slow (passive)
 Assess sorghum cropping systems environmental impact. production. (right panel) crops.
pool is at equilibrium for soils ~86 -500
(0) Mg C ha-1; the model needs to be
Results: Potential Ethanol Production in Central and South Texas re-parameterized to properly
Methods simulate carbon and nitrogen -700
processes. Soil Organic Carbon, Mg/ha
EPIC Model Simulations – A total of 2398 simulations were made for
several dryland and irrigated sorghum cropping systems, over a 45 Conclusions Future Activities
year time series (1961-2005), 28 central and south Texas counties, and
148 soils, considering 73 weather stations. EPIC provides daily,  Realistic estimates of sorghum  Compute the net energy value
monthly, seasonal, and yearly information for crop growth, yield, grain yield and biomass for grain- and biomass-based
nutrients uptake, hydrological processes, carbon and nutrient cycling, production can be obtained from energy production systems.
and erosion. Management systems and conservation practices were long-term simulation studies.
selected using the NRI database.  Assess the global warming
 Additionally, the environmental potential for each production
EPIC Model Testing – The Sorghum Variety Trials data from the Texas impact of different cropping system.
A&M Ag Program was used to test a unique set of crop parameters systems and their spatial and
representing grain sorghum hybrids grown in Texas. Within each year temporal variability can be Funds provided by the Great Plains Sorghum
and location, the average yield of the top three yielding hybrids was obtained in a cost-effective way Improvement and Utilization Center at KSU.
used for testing; management practices were as described for each using comprehensive simulation Project Director Michael Tuinistra, TAES
trial. Figure 4. Sorghum area simulated in each county (A), grain yield in dryland (B) models such as EPIC. representative Mark Hussey.
and irrigated (C) conditions, and estimated ethanol production if 100% of the
harvested grain were directed to ethanol production.