German Millet

[davies]

The temperature finally hits zero and we're thinking about fall grazing. Has anyone had any experience with german millet for swath grazing? We had heard it was drought tolerant.

[danm]

Hi,we farm just north of Brandon & have swath grazed for 2 years now & will do it again this year.
The research station in Brandon has done alot of work with it & have been very impressed.
We got about 5000lbs an acre of it with about 10- 11% protein. We started grazing it on Nov 15 & finshed Jan 20th with 60 head of cattle on 15 acres.The cattly actually picked up in condition.
The Millet itself has a waxy coating so will not rot & can be fed in spring if get cut off with snow but I think you should watch the type of land you have for this we are on clay & the mud factor in a field isn't pretty.
We sow it about the 1st week in June & swath just before an frost to prevent nitrate problems. There was concern about it heading & the protein dropping but the hours of sunlight are not enough in sept for it to set seed.
We use electric fence to limit access & move the wire every couple of days with reels.We did not beden or feed a bale until Jan 20 so I think we saved a bundle on fuel etc.
We used a Golden German Millet.Any more questions just ask.
Good luck

[davies]

Thanks for the information. We've been swath grazing oats and fall rye for 3 years with electric fences. What rate do you use when seeding the German Golden Millet? Do you use herbicides for weed control and if so which ones? There doesn't seem to be anything about the german millet in any of the herbicide information we have found.

[plowjockey]

Yes, we just seeded 50 acres of the golden German Millet and are wondering what we can sray on it as well? We seeded it around 17 lbs. per acre.

[Bruce14]

plowjockey, what did you end using for spray on your millet. I was told Buctril M but mine isn't ready to spray yet as we seeded it June 19. Must have seeded it too deep as it is just up now.

[davies]

We seeded our Common German Millet on June 16 and it is just up. The brochure we received from Agricore United Says this about herbicides. "2,4-D amine, 2,4-D ester, MCPA amine, ester, MCPA-K, MCPA-Na are registered on seedling and established stands of Crown millet. Banvel, Embutox, Escort, Kerb 50W, and Tordon 22K are registered for established millet under pasture use only. See herbicide labels for complete details." We haven't had a chance to go check labels yet. Golden German Millet is not listed as a crop on the Alberta Agriculture website's Herbicide calculator. Anyone from Alta. Ag. who monitors this site know why? We will let everyone know what we find out.

[plowjockey]

I haven't sprayed yet as it is so dry here.. no rain. I was going to use buctril m if it ever rains though.

[davies]

Ok it is time for an update. We sprayed the millet with MCPA amine at about 3 to 4 leaves at the lowest rate. It didn't hurt the millet, but didn't hurt the buckwheat either. Did anyone try anything else? We have had decent rainfall up until the last couple of weeks and temperatures have been hot. The millet is now about 3 feet tall and thickened out with lots of thick leaves. There is no sign of it heading. The oats seeded at the same time for swath grazing are about the same height and are starting to ripen. They will have to be cut right away.