Read the original article in AgriLife Today
“We were targeting the health-food market when we developed the black grain sorghum hybrid Onyx in 2012,” said Bill Rooney, Ph.D., AgriLife Research sorghum breeder and Borlaug-Monsanto Chair for Plant Breeding and International Crop Improvement in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station.
The Onyx hybrid was licensed to Silver Pallet Inc., which spent several years in seed increase and commercial production on the Texas High Plains before featuring the product in their Grain Berry cereals.
“This was the first material we licensed with that characteristic,” he said. “We licensed a new hybrid to Silver Pallet last year, Onyx2, and increased seed production this year. It will be grown commercially next year.”
Onyx2 has the same components but provides better yields for production purposes, Rooney said. He said an issue with the original Onyx was its yield potential was lower than commercial grain sorghum hybrids.
“We were able to increase the yields about 25% from the first hybrid to the second,” he said.
