SORGHUM / GROWING FOR MALT
Choose the region.
Protect the living grain.
Find the supply. Compare the finish. Build a grower conversation around grain you intend to sprout.
Start with the six-state sorghum belt. Click a state to inspect it and change your shortlist.
Build a sourcing shortlist
Color shows the selected evidence layer. A dark outline marks shortlisted states.
Point to a state to inspect its value.
Choose states by name Accessible map alternative
Compare the finish, not a state average
The western Plains trade a drier autumn for drought exposure and, farther north, an earlier freeze. Compare local stations before choosing a county.
| Station | Sep–Oct rain | Wet autumns | First freeze |
|---|
Rain: 1991–2020 normals. Wet autumns: Sep + Oct above 5 inches in 2000–2025 (26 years). Freeze: page-calculated 1991–2020 median first ≤32°F / 0°C day after July 1. These are historical station comparisons, not county averages or forecasts.
Put acres behind the grain
Estimate acreage for a raw-grain requirement. See what the page’s historical yield range would mean before relying on a single good crop year.
Default is an editable 56,000-lb example and 100% usable grain, with no assumed losses. Use your own cleaning and lot-acceptance experience. These are not malting yields.
| State | At 2025 yield | 2020–25 range |
|---|
Each row supplies the entire requirement on its own; do not add the rows. Whole acres round up. Range runs from high-yield to low-yield acreage and is not a forecast interval.
Acres = required lb ÷ 56 ÷ yield (bu/acre) ÷ usable fraction. The nominal 56-lb sorghum bushel is a planning conversion, not this lot’s measured test weight.
Keep drought in the conversation
Irrigation helped grain fill in the 2022 drought. It does not establish malting quality, and water availability needs its own review.
2022 Census categories: farms with the entire crop irrigated versus no crop irrigated. Observational averages, not a controlled experiment or a promised gain. US: 76.5 vs 43.6 bu/acre.
A backup irrigated block may help a dryland plan, but first confirm irrigation access, water limits, local economics and whether the lot actually received it.
Sorghum and water ↗Food-grade white / tan types are more vulnerable to grain mold. Grain color alone does not establish tannin status, a cultivar’s resistance or a lot’s malting performance.
No state-level map of available white malting sorghum is provided by the source. Organic acres are a separate, dated measure.
Turn the map into a grower brief
A sourcing plan for one candidate grower or lot. Mark evidence as documented, unresolved or a concern. These marks record your review; they do not certify a lot.
Bard’s 2019 specification used moisture ≤14%, germination ≥85% within three days without heavy mold (90% working target), DON ≤0.5 ppm and aflatoxin ≤5 ppb. It omitted fumonisin. Define your own complete specification, representative sampling, methods and release responsibilities; this explorer does not pass or reject grain.
Read the documented specification and its gaps ↗Your work stays in this tab until you save a plan or download a brief. Save the JSON plan to reopen it later. Nothing is sent to a grower.
What this map can tell you
Supply scale
The page’s rounded state production figures sum to 436.8 million bushels. The six states cover the published 2025 table; that does not mean other states grow no sorghum. About 96% of harvested acres were in these states in the 2022 Census.
Local finish
The page favors eastern Colorado, western Kansas, the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, western Nebraska and central South Dakota. No whole state is assigned a “safe for malt” score. Station records show local differences, not a field’s outcome.
Evidence boundaries
Harvest windows are USDA’s 2010 “most active” dates, not this year’s schedule. State yield is all grain sorghum, not a particular cultivar. Export-port toxin results and crop-insurance claims cannot certify the farm behind a lot, so they are not used as map risk scores.
Sources, dates and calculation notes
This standalone explorer transcribes the linked GFB page and related sourcing / storage guidance from the site repository on 29 September 2026. It does not fetch live weather, suppliers, acreage or quotes.
- Where to Grow Sorghum for Malt — production, yield, harvest windows, weather-station comparisons and regional decision rules.
- USDA Crop Production 2025 Summary (January 2026) and 2022 Summary (January 2023) — underlying state data cited by the page.
- USDA usual planting and harvesting dates (2010) — most-active harvest windows.
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers / ACIS — normals and station records; wet-autumn counts and freeze medians are GFB’s calculations as published on the page, not recalculated here.
- 2022 Census of Agriculture, Table 34, and 2021 Certified Organic Survey — irrigation categories and organic acres as transcribed by the page. Organic coverage is only three reported state values here.
- Sourcing Sorghum Farmer-Direct and Grain Storage, Germination, and Mycotoxin Controls — lot identity, grower brief and historical specification.
Derived values: selected production is a sum of reported state rows; share divides by 436.8 million bushels; yield spread divides (high − low) by high; wet-autumn share divides the count by 26; acreage uses a nominal 56 lb/bu and rounds up only the displayed whole-acre result. No suitability score, future-yield forecast or toxin probability is calculated.