Sorghum in United States

Sorghum in United States
Wild sorghum dates back prior to 3000 BC. Grain sorghum first was carried into North America from West Africa with the slave trade, along with other grain crops.

In about 1857, 16 cultivars of sorgo were brought to the United States from Natal.

Early sorghum development in North America involved natural hybridization.

Deliberate hybridization followed soon thereafter, with some of the earliest crosses being made in 1914.

This was followed with the development of extensive hybridization programs.

Sorghum ranks fifth in acreage and production among major cereal crops on a worldwide basis behind wheat, rice corn and barley.

World production in the mid 1970s was approximately 52 million ton produced in some 104 million acres.

Slightly more than 50% of sorghum grain is produced in North America.

Sorghum grain is used for human consumption and as feed for animals.

Sorghum has been vital food source for billion of people, especially in the semi arid tropics of Africa and Asia.

The grain can be used in the making of leavened and unleavened bread and in the production of beer.

It also can be boiled into porridge.

Sorghum stems and foliage are used for pasture, green chop or hay, and silage; plant bases are used for fuel for cooking and stems are used o make basket and fish traps.
Sorghum in United States

Rice

Rice
Rice is major cereal grain whose varieties are used as staple foods by people throughout the world.

It may be the major as aspect of a diet, or incorporated into the man dish, side dish, or dessert and is commonly used in the preparation of ready to eat breakfast cereals.

Rice is especially important to persons with wheat allergies and is commonly eaten as a first food by infants, as it offers the least cereal allergy.

Rice may be eaten as the whole grain, or polished shedding the bran. Generally, rice is polished during milling in order to remove the brown hull, which also removes some of the protein, vitamins and minerals. (The once-prevalent deadly disease beri-beri resulted from eating polished rice (thiamin removed in the milling process) as a staple food.)

Today, most white rice is enriched with vitamins and minerals, to add back nutrients lost in milling.

Unpolished, whole rice is more subject to flavor deterioration and insect infestation than polished, white rice.
Rice

The Structure and Properties of Corn

The Structure and Properties of Corn
The physical properties of corn are important in the design of handling equipment and storage facilities. These properties of course, are affected somewhat by moisture content.

Compared to other grains, corn has a unique shape and low specific gravity, but many other properties are similar to other cereals.

Corn kernels are the largest cereal seed, weighing 250 – 300 mg each. They are flat seeds due to pressure during growth from adjacent on the cob.

The corn kernel has a blunt crown and pointed conical tip cap.

The corn kernel is botanically classified as a caryopsis (dry, indehiscent, single seeded fruit) and is attached to the cob by the pedicle.

The kernel contains a complete embryo and all the structural nutritional and enzymatic functions required for growth and development into a plant.

The kernel is composed of four anatomical parts; the tip cap, which provides the point of attachment to the cob; the bran, which is the protective outer covering; the germ or embryo, which becomes the new plant; and the endosperm, which is the reservoir of nutrients to support germination.

Each anatomical part of the corn kernel has a different composition.

The largest fraction of the kernel is the endosperm which is largely composed of starch, the reserve energy supply for a germinating embryo.

Endosperm cells are packed with starch granules embedded in a combination matrix of amorphous protein.

Also embedded in this matrix are protein bodies composed almost entirely of the storage protein zein.

Corn is often harvested as soon as the moisture content drops below 28%. Unless quickly dried, high moisture corn is subject to raid deterioration, especially by mold infestation.

However, high temperature drying, which is occasionally used during the busy harvest period to speed drying operations, can adversely affect wet milling properties and air inlet temperature exceeding 50 degree C should be avoided.

Any hygroscopic material material like corn losses (desorbs) or gains (adsorbs) moisture depending on whether its water vapor pressure (water activity) is greater or less than that of its environment.

Equilibrium moisture content for corn is complicated by the hysteresis effect, in which the equilibrium moisture content depends on whether the grain is desorbing or adsorbing.

Also each component has a different affinity for moisture, so it is not surprise that different corn fractions have different equilibrium moisture isotherms.

Because different types of corn have slightly different composition, their moisture sorption isotherms may vary accordingly.

The critical moisture content for “safe” storage of corn is generally to be 15%, but lower moisture contents are required for corn to be stored for long periods at warm temperatures as occur in the tropics.
The Structure and Properties of Corn