S&W Seed Company expands sorghum breeding effort with NexSteppe germplasm acquisition

August 28, S&W Seed Company announced the integration of proprietary sorghum germplasm in the U.S. and Brazil that it previously acquired from NexSteppe, Inc. The NexSteppe germplasm, which S&W acquired in April 2018, is a scalable, reliable and sustainable feedstock solution for the forage, grain, biofuels, biopower and bio-based product industries. Integration of the NexSteppe germplasm is expected to bolster S&W's sorghum breeding effort, which already includes best-in-class hybrid forage and hybrid grain varieties.

Mark Wong, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "Our goal over the coming years is to significantly expand our sorghum operations in the U.S. The launch of the high quality NexSteppe sorghum germplasm we acquired earlier this year is another key component to that strategy. NexSteppe already has a strong following with many of the leading bio-based companies around the world which we will look to expand upon and further develop within new markets, including certain forage and grain markets."

All of NexSteppe's germplasm is adapted to different environments and seasons, providing a wide range of maturities to meet varying customer harvest-window profiles. In particular, NexSteppe's Palo Alto biomass sorghum hybrids provide a high-yielding, low-cost biomass feedstock for biopower and cellulosic biofuels. Designed to have low moisture levels at maturity, Palo Alto biomass sorghum hybrids significantly lessen the amount of water harvested, thereby reducing the harvest and transport costs that can be 50 percent or more of total delivered feedstock cost. Lower moisture levels also provide a higher effective energy density for combustion.