Tame Millet

[grefer]

Has anyone in Sask. had any experience growing either Crown or German millet.I am interested in trying it next year as a green feed crop for beef cattle.What is your experience?

[Braveheart]

grefer, we grew some German Golden Millet this year. It grew very well. It was seeded at about 26 lbs per acre on June 14. We put it up as silage on Aug 28. It was about 40 inches tall, and very thick. Yield was good. I don't think I would recommend it as green feed. It was a thick dense swath. The leaves have a waxy coating on them which makes dry down difficult. The waxy coating would make for a good swath grazing forage as it would help keep nutrients from degrading.

Regards,

Braveheart

[les]

braveheart...How did you cut the millet? I heard if you cut it with a discbine it knocks the wax off the leaves so it drys sooner.

[grefer]

Thanks for the reply Braveheart.A few more questions.How much precip. did you receive to get the yield you had.Also what soil type did you seed it on and what was your fertilizer program on that field.Do you know if Crown might dry down quicker.I was told the advantage of German was it is superior for swath grazing,perhaps partly because of the waxy leaves?

[Braveheart]

les, our millet was cut with a swather (25') by the custom silage crew we had hired. I think that aggressive crimping or maceration would help with drydown, but even a smaller swath with conditioning would take quite a while to dry because of the type of leaf and stem of the German Golden millet.

grefer, we had a heavy 4" rain a few days before seeding. We had 4 additional inches between seeding and harvest. Prior to the first 4" downfall our soil conditions were very dry.

We're in Manitoba and our soil type is a fairly productive black clay loam. Fertility was very good because we had used the German millet to reseed a canola field that was eaten by cutworms, flea beetles, and maybe vampires. It was just gone. We had productive conditions but work at the Brandon Research Station with this crop shows it can be really productive on lighter soils as well. Talk to Dr.Paul McCaughy there. He has good results using German Golden millet for swath grazing.

My neighbor has grown Crown millet for a couple of years. He has to have good weather for drying, but has good yields and seems satisfied. My observation is that Crown millet does dry a little quicker than the Golden millet.

Regards,

Braveheart