Millet is a summer-growing grass native to Africa and Asia, and is produced in large quantities throughout the USA, Africa, Asia, Russia and Western Europe, where it is used for both human and animal consumption (grazing, hay and birdseed). In Australia it is marketed primarily for birdseed or grown as a fodder crop.
There are no proven reliable production packages for forage millet in WA dryland farming systems. Information presented here is largely based on eastern States work. Treat millet as an experimental crop for dryland farming systems until you are confident of its performance.
Millet doesn’t produce the feed quantity of forage sorghum but has better quality with no risk of prussic acid poisoning. It has good drought tolerance, although is not as deep-rooted as sorghum (pearl millets approach the production levels and rooting depth of forage sorghums).
Rotation:
Millet can be grown in rotation with cereals, legumes, pastures, fallows, oilseeds and cover crops. Check the herbicide history of the paddock and the plant-back periods for residual herbicides used over the past two seasons, particularly for sulfonylureas. Glean, for example, has a plant-back period of 15 months in alkaline soils.
At present, it is difficult to get two crops in any one year. (Warm season crop cannot normally follow winter crop because winter crop harvest is later than warm season crop sowing window.) Sowing warm season crops outside of this window is opportunistic, dependent on soil moisture and seeding opportunity (summer rainfall events). Therefore, a rotation containing summer and winter crops still averages one crop per year.
It may be possible to increase intensity by growing a warm season crop straight after a winter crop if the winter crop is swathed or cut and harvested early, e.g. Unicorn barley, canola and hay. Some farmers are exploring the option of sowing warm season crops into winter crop before harvest if soil moisture is high late in the season about October but this needs more investigation.
Paddock selection:
Millet suits most cropping soils. With its small seed size, establishment is usually better on lighter loam and clay soils with neutral to slightly acidic pH than on heavy clays and hard-setting soils. Choose a paddock with a high level of stubble residue (>80% ground cover) to prevent soil moisture loss over summer. Well drained soils with good water-holding capacity are best.
White French millets, Japanese millets and Siberian millets have fibrous root systems largely restricted to the top metre of soil. The forage pennisetums (pearl millets) have a larger root system similar to sorghum and may extract moisture and nutrients from greater depths. Good yields and production are most likely when the soil profile is full of moisture at seeding and a low weed burden.
Types and varieties:
Grain millets:
• White French millet - unsuitable for grazing.
• Pannicum and Panorama millets - unsuitable for grazing but stubbles make good hay.
Multi-purpose millets:
• Japanese millet – suitable for grain, grazing or conserved forage. Superior cold tolerance allows earlier sowing than other forage millets (soil 14oC and rising). It produces good quality and quantity of early feed which under good conditions may be grazed four to six weeks after planting at 25 to 40 cm high. Japanese millets have better waterlogging tolerance and can be grown under flood irrigation. Two varieties are available, Japanese and Shirohie. They have a short grazing life, being quick to mature with relatively poor recovery from grazing. Shirohie has better grazing characteristics.
• White panicum or Siberian millet – suitable for grazing or conserved forage. Not as cold tolerant as Japanese (sown when soil temperatures at seeding depth reach 18oC and are rising at 9 am) and is slower growing. However, it tillers profusely with a prostrate growth habit, has better regrowth after grazing, a longer growing season and is very palatable.
• Forage pennisetums or pearl millets – suitable for grazing or conserved forage. These are tall plants with a growth habit similar to forage sorghum, producing a large bulk of feed without the risk of prussic acid poisoning. Sow when soil temperatures at seeding depth at 9 am reach 18oC and rising. The main growth period is summer and autumn. Plants do not tolerate waterlogging and may have palatability problems under severe moisture stress.
• Hybrid pennisetums – mainly used for grazing. Varieties such as Justleaf and Nutrifeed are very late maturing providing leafy feed late in the season. They have similar growth requirements to the forage pennisetums.
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