By Mike Surbrugg

msurbrugg@joplinglobe.com

GREENFIELD, Mo. — Pennington Seed annually buys more than a million bushels of milo to make bird feed.

In 2006, the company purchased 1.11 million bushels of that grain, according to Kevin Neill, who has bought milo for Pennington for 18 years.

It was not that many years ago that 85 percent of the milo came from farms within 40 to 50 miles of Greenfield. That has dropped to about 50 percent. The rest is hauled to Greenfield from as far as Kansas City and central Kansas.

Acres for milo, officially called grain sorghum, are down in Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas.

Pennington pays a premium for local milo that does not require long hauling. The company contracts for milo after the grain is produced, he said.

Over the last 18 years, Neill said he has seen milo prices as low as $2.40 per hundredweight and as high as $10 for the same amount of grain.

A good estimated average price for buyers is in the $7 range per hundred-weight, Neill said.

Pennington also bought 1.11 million bushels of sunflower seed in 2006.

Dennis Elbrader, Kansas State University Extension agriculture agent, Columbus, said 10 years ago the county had up to 40,000 acres of milo and about 8,000 or fewer acres of corn. That number has been reversed.

He credits the change to improved corn varieties that have a shorter growing season with more drought tolerance.

Before the switch, milo could average more than 80 bushels per acre and corn, in thin soil, 60 bushels. Corn yields can now be 150 bushels per acre.

According to state departments of agriculture:

Missouri: Should produce 10.8 million bushels of milo, compared with 8 million bushels in the drought year of 2006. In 2006, Missouri ranked fifth in the nation in milo production.