Effects of Nitrogen Application On Bioenergy Sorghum Yield and Quality.

Forage sorghum is one of the prospective crops that may be used to produce biofuels in the future, therefore it is of interest to find management practices that improve both the production of biomass yield and quality.  We present our observations of the effects the different rates of nitrogen fertilization has on yield and tissue nitrogen content, and of relevant relationships between tissue nitrogen content and tissue quality measures such as ash, lignin, sucrose,  xylans, cellulose and starch content, based on measurements performed by near infrared spectrophotoscopy. Nitrogen applications increased yields and tissue N concentrations in 2009.   It has also increased ash, lignin,xylan and cellulose concentrations but decreased the values of sucrose and starch concentration in the 2009 primary harvest. Further data obtained from second harvest and other harvest years will be presented on the poster.