Japanese Millet

Japanese Millet is a warm season annual crop commonly grown for mid season grazing and forage production.   It is a crop similar to Sudangrass but without the prussic acid poisoning concerns for feeding to livestock.  Cattle find the forage palatable and it can be cut or grazed multiple times in the season .  Forage dry matter yields are generally between 2.5 – 5 tons/ Acre depending on fertility and growing conditions.   The feed quality is good if harvested before the boot stage.  Highest protein levels are possible when the millet is harvested multiple times and at a crop height of about 2-3 feet.  Japanese millet seed can also be harvested and saved for next season’s planting or for livestock feeding.  Poultry readily consume the seed without grinding.   Additionally the Japanese millet straw can be baled for bedding.

Planting

Japanese millet should be planted after soil temperatures have warmed to 60F.  Millet likes fertile soils so plowing down a manured sod works well for this crop.  The seedbed should be well prepared and firm.  The typical seeding rate is 25-30 lbs/A.  A grain drill with the seeding depth set to plant _ to 1 inch works well.  Plant deeper if dry soil conditions are expected.  Rolling or cultipacking the soil before and after planting improves seedling emergence.   The seed can also be broadcast planted followed by a light harrowing or packing.  Millet emerges quickly in warm soil and generally is quite competitive with weeds.  Japanese millet is tolerant of  moisture extremes but is sensitive to frost.

Grazing

Millet crops can be ready for grazing a soon as 40 days after planting.  Typically grazing begins when the plants are 2-3 foot tall and grazed down no lower than 6 inches to allow for good regrowth.   Best utilization for grazing is to subdivide the millet field and graze in rotation.  The smaller paddock size reduces forage trampling and helps control the grazing height.  It is important to begin grazing a large field before the millet becomes too tall as it grows quickly and may become over mature.   The millet will generally regrow quickly and can be grazed every few weeks but will die back when frosted.

Silage

Millet can be harvested with a single cutting at the early boot stage before heads emerge up until the soft dough stage.     It can be difficult to dry down the stems so allow more drying time than typical grass crops.  Millet can be either wrapped round baled or chopped.
For multiple cuttings it is best to leave a 6 to 10 inch stubble for best regrowth.  Multiple cuts produce a higher protein forage.

Green Manure

Japanese Millet is also useful as a green manure crop.  It is known to reduce rhizoctonia problems in succeeding potato crops.  The soil after millet crops tend to be mellowed and easy to plant into.  It is often possible to follow a millet forage planting with a winter grain crop with very minimal tillage requirements.

Seed/grain production

During late summer when day length begins to shorten the millet plants want to set seed.  Vegetative growth slows and  purple/grey seed heads are formed.  If allowed to mature the heads begin to turn brown from top to bottom.   Under northern conditions the crop is ready to harvest by October.    Millet is sometimes cut when the seed heads have turned approximately 2/3 brown and allowed to dry further in a swath before combining.  It is also possible to direct cut the millet crop with a typical grain header on the combine.    It has been found that under Vermont growing conditions Japanese millet produces crops in excess of 1500lbs/acre.  The straw from this crop can also be baled up for bedding although  this process is sometimes complicated by the fact that harvest is late in the fall.  It is difficult to get the straw completely dry enough for proper baling in October.    The stubble and straw is also a good ground cover for winter if left on the soil.

For homestead scale production there are many possibilities for utilizing a Japanese millet seed crop.  For example, simply harvesting the entire plant as a dried bundle would provide both seed and bedding for a small poultry flock.