Farm manager Paul Dieck-man said the sorghum was planted to box soil country last year and needed to stand well with rain at harvest.

He said the sorghum was all planted in December and January after a lack of rain ruled out an earlier sowing date.

The later planting date meant sorghum was trying to dry down in the cooler months and had to stand there after being sprayed out with glyphosate for a longer than normal time.

Rain at harvest compounded the situation but the choice of variety assisted in getting the grain off the paddock without lodging problems. Mr Dieckman said he had grown Pioneer hybrid G56 the previous season and put in 200 hectares of the sorghum this year.

Much of the G56 country produced an average yield of more than 7t/ha with some individual strips yielding up to 10t/ha.

An official weigh bin of the G56 sorghum under double-crop conditions recorded a yield of 8.69t/ha in a very good result under the late plant conditions.

Mr Dieckman said G56 had done the job in producing the good yields and was impressive with its standability in the paddock.

"We had up to three inches of rain and it stood there like steel posts," he said. "It just didn't fall over."

He said it grew a healthy plant and produced good grain size and grain of good weight.

Sorghum on the property is normally planted in late September or early October but the lack of rain last season meant planting was delayed until January.

Most sorghum last season was planted into paddocks that had grown the crop the previous year.

Harrows were used to knock down the leaf and stalks and the sorghum was planted into 1m rows at a rate of between 60,000 and 65,000 seeds/ha.

Mr Dieckman said the planting rate was ideal for the box soil country and helped produce the good tonnages.

Zero-till was used to keep good sub-soil moisture in the ground and greatly assist the sorghum in producing a good crop.

Sorghum had always been earmarked for the paddocks although as the season grew later some paddocks were replaced with corn.

Mr Dieckman said it was a last-minute decision and they planted some Pioneer hybrid 34N43 corn in the middle of January. It looked a good option with an average yield of 5.5t/ha on the later plant. G56 will be grown again next season after its good performance. They would also consider some of the new hybrids as well.

He said they would likely try Pioneer hybrid G99 and G22 as planting partner options to G56.