By Dr. Michael Boland, content specialist, Ag Marketing Resource Center, Kansas State University.
Reviewed March 2005.
Overview
Millet is a general term used to categorize a wide range of small seeded cereals. Proso millet is a warm season grass capable of producing seed usually anywhere from 60 to 100 days after planting. Because of its relatively short growing season, it has a low moisture requirement and is capable of producing food or feed where other grain crops would fail.
Proso millet, which is also called millet, hog millet and yellow hog, can be used in several ways. Proso millet grain is used as bird and livestock feed in the United States and for livestock feed and human consumption in other countries. As human food, millet is used as a meal for making baked foods, as a paste from pounded wet seeds, and as boiled gruel. The feed value of proso millet for cattle and swine is generally considered equal to grain sorghum or milo (and corn when less than 50 percent of the ration’s corn is replaced). Proso grain should be processed to crack the hard seed coat to allow for better livestock digestion. For swine and poultry, proso millet, like most other cereal grains, should be supplemented with lysine.
In the world import and export market, proso millet is the primary millet. The bulk what is sold in the cash trade is marketed through the county elevators where it is most extensively grown. The grain is cleaned and further processed and used for bird seed, and some proso undergoes a dehulling process to supply both human and animal needs. It is the only millet of quantity that is involved in world trade. Historically, prices have been higher than maize or sorghum, although prices can vary dramatically from season to season.
The seeds do not mature uniformly and shattering of the seeds that are first ripe often occurs before others are mature. Because of this, proso millet is usually mowed (swathed) and cured in a windrow prior to combining.
Proso millet is often planted as an emergency catch crop for situations where other crops have failed, been hailed out or were never planted due to unfavorable conditions. Proso millet may also be beneficial in a crop rotation. In a rotation, it has the advantage of enhancing weed control, especially with winter annual grasses in winter wheat. Proso is versatile in that it can be successfully grown on many soil types and is probably better adapted than most crops to “poor” land, such as land with soils having low water holding capacity and low fertility.
Nearly all proso millet grown in major production areas is white seeded. Red-seeded proso has some demand but is best grown with a contract or specific market identified. Millet for birdseed purposes also is often grown under contract.
Links
- Foxtail and Proso Millet, Progress in New Crops, 1996.
- Proso Millet in North Dakota, North Dakota State University Extension Service, 2007.
- Proso Millet, Alberta Agriculture and Food, Canada, 2007.
- Proso Millet, Center for New Crops and Plants Products, Purdue University, 1996.
Links checked January 2008.