Therefore, enhancing the quality of grain sorghum stover may offer an opportunity to add value to the overall Nearly 3 million hectares of grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L).system when post grain harvest stover residue is used Moench] are harvested in the USA each year. It may be possible to add value to crop and animal systems by enhancing the digestibility as a forage base for livestock. of the stover residue by the use of brown midrib (bmr) genes if grain Chemical and genetic approaches have been emyields can be maintained. The objectives of this study were to evaluate ployed to improve forage fiber digestibility by reducing the effect of bmr-6 and bmr-12 genes on grain yield of sorghum and the amount of lignin or the extent of lignin cross linked to evaluate the effect of the bmr genes on stover yield and quality in with cell wall carbohydrates. Brown midrib forage genothese genetic backgrounds: 'Wheatland', 'Redlan', RTx430, Tx623, types usually contain less lignin and may have altered Tx630, Tx631, and the hybrid AWheatland ϫ RTx430. Plant height, lignin chemical composition (Bucholtz et al., 1980; Chermaturity, grain yield and test weight, stover neutral detergent fiber ney et al., 1991; Vogel and Jung, 2001). Activities of two (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and separate enzymes involved in lignin synthesis are reduced in vitro NDF digestibility (IVNDFD) were measured in split-plot as the result of the bmr mutations bmr-6 (reduced cinnaexperiments replicated four times in each of four environments with lines being whole-plots and genotypes being subplots. Brown midrib myl alcohol dehydrogenase downregulation) (Bucholtz genes reduced grain yield and residue yield in the lines; however, et al., 1980) and the allelic (Bittinger et al., 1981) bmr-12 yield reduction was not observed in the bmr-12 AWheatland ϫ and bmr-18 (reduced caffeic acid O-methyl transferase RTx430 hybrid. The bmr-12 near-isolines generally had lowest stover activity) (Bout and Vermerris, 2003). To date, genetic lignin content and highest fiber digestibility, bmr-6 was intermediate, control of the lignification process through use of bmr and wild-type counterparts had highest lignin content and lowest fiber genes has offered the most direct and productive apdigestibility. When all data are considered, the bmr-12 gene appears proach to reducing lignin concentration and increasing superior to the bmr-6 gene in terms of potentially adding value to the digestibility of sorghums (Gerhardt et al., 1994). stover of grain sorghum for use in crop/animal systems. The variableThe bmr phenotype is generally associated with reexpression of bmr-12 and bmr-6 in different lines indicates that selecduced vigor and yield. Previous research in maize has tion of compatible genetic backgrounds will be critical in determining the realized impact on value.

A survey was conducted to study the factors affecting crop insurance purchase and coverage, to identify the sources of risk in farming, and to determine the impact of policy changes on risk management for designing new educational programs. The survey results show that the new 1994 crop insurance program has been effective in increasing the insured pool of farmers, though it has not yet gained wide acceptance among the farming communities in Nebraska. Risks associated with price uncertainties turned out to be very important in the opinion of farmers. Knowledge of farmers about the futures market influenced the selection of appropriate marketing tools and aid in managing price risks. The new crop insurance program has been effective in communicating to the farming community that future ad hoc disaster payments are unlikely. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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