High-Protein Sorghum Promises Lower Chicken and Egg Prices at the Checkout

A carton of eggs at Woolworths costs about $7.50. A tray of chicken thighs runs $12 to $14. For families checking their bank balance before hitting the checkout, those numbers add up fast.

University of Queensland researchers have just announced a breakthrough. They've developed a sorghum variety with 15% protein, up from the 10% typical in Australian crops. Sorghum feeds the chickens and pigs that end up on supermarket shelves. The 50% protein increase lowers the cost of producing each bird.

Professor Ian Godwin has been working on increasing the grain's protein content for a decade. He told ABC News the higher protein means poultry and pork producers can replace more than half the soybean meal in animal feed with cheaper sorghum.

"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. "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."

Feed Costs Drive Grocery Prices

Poultry producers face feed costs as their biggest expense. Soybean meal provides the protein that helps chickens grow quickly and hens lay eggs consistently. Soybean meal runs three and a half to four times the price of sorghum per tonne.

The new high-protein sorghum cuts feed costs by about 50 cents per two-kilogram chicken. That might not sound like much, but when you're producing millions of birds a year, it adds up. And in a competitive retail market, those savings tend to flow through to shoppers.

"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," Professor Godwin said.

Egg prices have been climbing for the past two years. Grain costs went up during global supply disruptions, and farmers have been paying more for transport, packaging, and labour. Cheaper feed would help reverse that trend.

How the Breakthrough Works

Professor Godwin's research team used gene editing to knock out genes that reduced the digestibility of protein in sorghum. The result is a grain that delivers 15 to 16% protein content, compared to the usual nine to 10%.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation has partnered with Professor Godwin's team and a seed company to commercialise the variety. UQ has conducted field trials at its St Lucia campus, with further evaluation planned in the United States.

Professor Godwin said he expects to grow the first commercial high-protein sorghum crop this year.

Strong Export Demand Already

Australian sorghum already sees strong international demand, especially from China. The grain is used primarily to brew baijiu, a clear spirit with up to 60% alcohol content that is widely considered the world's most consumed distilled liquor by volume.

Commodity trader Anthony Furse told ABC News that China needs about two million tonnes of sorghum per year for baijiu production, but an increasing percentage is going into feed markets.

"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 will end up in south China for feed markets compared to the wine market up north," he said.

Professor Godwin said the high-protein variety would increase demand for Australian sorghum both domestically and internationally.

Queensland Farmers See Strong Harvest

In southern Queensland, growers have been wrapping up a better-than-expected sorghum harvest. Pep Geldard, a broadacre farmer south of Dalby about 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, said some growers on the Darling Downs have seen yields up to 10 tonnes per hectare.

"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 told ABC Rural.

With strong yields and an uptick in prices since the Middle East conflict began, Ms Geldard said she's ending the season on a high note.

For households watching every dollar at the supermarket, the question now is how quickly the new high-protein sorghum reaches commercial scale. If Professor Godwin's timeline holds and the first crops are planted this year, the impact on grocery bills starts showing up within 12 to 18 months.

That won't fix everything. Chicken and egg prices are shaped by multiple factors, from labour costs to transport to retail margins. But cheaper feed is a meaningful step in the right direction.