{"id":575112,"date":"2026-03-30T23:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575112\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:15:09","slug":"chicken-and-eggs-could-end-up-cheaper-because-of-new-high-protein-sorghum-variety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575112\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicken and eggs could end up cheaper because of new high-protein sorghum variety"},"content":{"rendered":"

A scientific breakthrough has created a new type of grain crop that could bring down the price of eggs and meat on supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n

The research and work from the University of Queensland increases the amount of protein in sorghum, a cereal grain used as feed, particularly for pigs, poultry and cattle.<\/p>\n

UQ professor Ian Godwin has been working on increasing the grain’s protein content for the past decade.<\/p>\n

He and his team now believe they can grow a variety of sorghum that has 15 per cent protein when most Australian varieties are closer to 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

Professor Godwin said the 50 per cent increase meant poultry and pork producers would be able to largely replace soybean meal \u2014 another source of protein \u2014 which was much more expensive.<\/p>\n

“If we take a meat chicken, if you look at current prices, the price of soybean meal per tonne is about three and a half to four times what sorghum is,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you can take more than half of that soybean meal out of the diet, you’re going to be producing a tonne of feed at substantially cheaper amounts.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sorghum is a popular crop grown in broadacre systems. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n

He said that would drive down not just the price of meat but also the price of eggs.<\/p>\n

“It should be a cheaper meat product, or it will also be used for poultry layers as well so it should mean that the feed costs in poultry layers go down as well.”<\/p>\n

Professor Godwin is hoping to grow the first commercial high-protein sorghum crop this year and expects interest to grow.<\/p>\n

“It would increase the demand for Australian sorghum not just here but probably internationally.”<\/p>\n

The research has formed part of the Sorghum Strategic Alliance, a collaboration between the university and the Grains Research and Development Corporation formed late last year.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

China is Australia’s main sorghum export market. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n

Already strong demand from China<\/p>\n

Commodity trader Anthony Furse said Australian sorghum was seeing strong international demand.<\/p>\n

China is the main destination for exports, with the grain used primarily to brew baijiu, a popular clear spirit with an alcohol content of up to 60 per cent \u2014 it is widely considered the world’s most consumed distilled liquor by volume.<\/p>\n

However, the use of sorghum for feedstock is also increasing.<\/p>\n

“They need about two million tonnes a year of sorghum for the [baijiu],” Mr Furse said.<\/p>\n

“What has happened over time, though, is more sorghum goes into the feed market, so I think a much greater percentage in particular this year \u2026 will end up in south China for feed markets compared to the wine market up north.”<\/p>\n

\"Sorghum<\/p>\n

Most of Australia’s sorghum crop is grown in Queensland and northern NSW. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n

Solid summer sorghum harvest<\/p>\n

In southern Queensland, some growers say their recent sorghum harvest has proven better than expected.<\/p>\n

Pep Geldard, a broadacre farmer south of Dalby, about 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, sees potential in sorghum.<\/p>\n

“[It] definitely would be nice to put more sorghum in next season, that’s for sure, and I think that is potentially the mindset of a lot of growers as well if they get that opportunity,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think most farmers on the [Darling] Downs have been really happy with how their sorghum has yielded. I think some growers I’ve heard of yields up to 10 tonnes, which is amazing.”<\/p>\n

With strong yields and an uptick in prices since the Middle East conflict began, Ms Geldard is wrapping up the season on a high note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A scientific breakthrough has created a new type of grain crop that could bring down the price of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,282103,282104,99,244129,512,41262,208513,1886,12888,25794,77403,61833,579,171,14751,253292,1543,337,134298,282105,4220,1109,67288],"class_list":["post-575112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baijiu","tag-broadacre","tag-business","tag-cheaper","tag-china","tag-cost","tag-cropping","tag-eggs","tag-export","tag-feed","tag-grain","tag-harvest","tag-high","tag-markets","tag-meat","tag-outcomes","tag-protein","tag-research","tag-sorghum","tag-soybean-meal","tag-system","tag-trial","tag-university-of-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}