Gary:

Very useful information. I did not know such inside info regarding the USDA reported data. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Regards,

Dipak

Dipak Santra, Ph.D.  Professor (Alternative Crops Breeding Specialist) President, International Broomcorn Millet Association  Department of Agronomy and Horticulture  University of Nebraska–Lincoln  Panhandle Research & Extension Center  4502 Ave I, Scottsbluff, NE 69361  (308) 632-1244 (work) / (308) 765-2324 (cell)

From: Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> On Behalf Of Gary Wietgrefe via Collab
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2024 7:42 AM
To: collab@lists.millets2023.space
Subject: Re: [Collab] Collab Digest, Vol 30, Issue 18

Caution: Non-NU Email

Regarding the number of farmers harvesting various millet seeds in the U.S., you may be close on 100 teff, 1,000 proso, but off on sorghum which likely has over 20,000 farmers harvesting some type of sorghum (grain, forage, syrup) in 2022.

Sorghum, with the largest acreages in the "millet" category may be more accurate with 13,591 farms harvesting sorghum GRAIN in 40 states in 2022, and 15,339 harvesting grain sorghum in 42 states in 2017 according to U.S. Census data. See USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool.

I would venture to guess there are less than 100 farms harvesting each of these millets--Japanese, browntop, and hybrid pearl for seed. There are perhaps two million acres of those last three types planted each year for various uses (grazing, forage, wildlife, cover crops being the main uses). U.S.D.A. does not collect data on these types of millet.

Except for sorghum grain producers, the best documented data is for proso millet using the U.S. Census as reported by National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA every five years from 1997 to 2022. See USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool.

Be extremely cautious using census data for extracting proso production. The reason is that USDA will not publish total acres or production of any crop for a county when there are few producers (under 5?) in each county. For example, in the 2022 Census report there were 509,152 thousand acres of proso harvested in 21 states by 1,180 producers. However, NO!!! acres reported from South Dakota even thou NASS annual statistics shows South Dakota is the third largest state producing proso. The reason why is that proso, when it is planted, is from large acreages by few producers.

Also, I find US Census data extremely haphazard, and inconsistent regarding proso collection. For example, there were 21 states reporting proso production in 2022 from 1,180 farms, 26 states in 2017 with 1,004 farms, but only 6 states in 1997 with 1,660 farms.

Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive survey of millet production by type and use in the U.S. and never has been....Gary Wietgrefe

On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 8:50 AM <collab-request@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: National Public Radio on millets, June 8, 2023 (Don Osborn)
   2. Early history of proso millet in Europe (2022 book) (Don Osborn)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2024 10:33:19 -0400
From: Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org>
To: "collab@lists.millets2023.space" <collab@lists.millets2023.space>
Cc: "Myers, Robert L." <myersrob@missouri.edu>
Subject: Re: [Collab] National Public Radio on millets, June 8, 2023
Message-ID:
        <CA+RHibWV8O_1oqLUd2iD4Qw6mtvnNO9dVtNH=bQt2Ea1YBrtRA@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Thank you, Rob, for this clarification and additional information.

I'm wondering how many growers in the US produce seed for Japanese
(barnyard) millet, Echinochloa esculenta - for marketing for any purpose -
and how many produce seed for billion dollar grass (Indian barnyard
millet), E. frumentacea? In the absence of figures, any guesses?

A while back, I did a back-of-napkin estimate based on some conversations,
that there might be on the order of just under 100 growers of grain teff in
the US, just under 1000 growers of proso millet, and something under 10,000
growers of grain sorghum. More accurate numbers would be interesting and
useful, but in their absence, a reasonable set of estimates add a human
dimension to estimates of acres planted and bushels harvested.

All the best,

Don

DO, EL, MI, US
NAMA


On Thu, Jul 18, 2024 at 1:01?PM Myers, Robert L. <myersrob@missouri.edu>
wrote:

> Don,
>
>
>
> I am quite familiar with Linus Rothermic and have been on his farm a few
> times, including viewing his Japanese millet fields and talking to him
> about that crop.
>
>
>
> He has worked for many years with one particular buyer on millet for many
> years who is engaged with seed sales for the wildlife seed industry.  So I
> think most of the Japanese millet seed he produces was in the past used for
> wildlife planting such as to attract ducks.  However, more recently,
> Japanese millet has been used in cover crop plantings, particularly mixes
> of cover crops, so it wouldn?t surprise me if the buyer that Linus sells to
> is also reselling some for cover crop use.  I don?t know the name of the
> buyer.
>
>
>
> Rob
>
>
>
> *From: *Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org>
> *Date: *Thursday, July 18, 2024 at 11:47?AM
> *To: *"collab@lists.millets2023.space" <collab@lists.millets2023.space>
> *Subject: *Re: National Public Radio on millets, June 8, 2023
>
>
>
>
>
> Eva Tesfaye's very nice June 2023 Harvest Public Media / NPR piece on
> millets has just been resurfaced on AgUpdate.com's "Agri-View,"/1 so I'd
> like to revisit a question posed at that time regarding Japanese (barnyard)
> millet./2
>
>
>
> The article mentioned Missouri farmer Linus Rothermich's growing of
> Japanese millet (presumably Echinochloa esculenta) for grain. I had
> wondered what end use(s) the grain had.
>
>
>
> Without attempting to contact Mr. Rothermich directly, I did a little more
> digging, and it seems that he is growing seed for planting this millet as a
> cover crop./3 In other words, as I understand it, he sells the Japanese
> millet seed he produces to seed suppliers, which in turn sell to other
> farmers to plant as cover crops.
>
>
>
> In the previous thread on the original NPR article,/2 Dipak suggested that
> the Japanese millet seed could in principle be dehulled and used for human
> food. At this time, however, I have no information on commercial production
> of any barnyard millet for human consumption in North America, but would be
> most interested to learn of it.
>
>
>
> Don Osborn, PhD
>
> (East Lansing, MI, US)
>
> North American Millets Alliance
>
>
>
> Notes:
>
> 1. "Millets could aid in surviving climate change" by Eva Tesfaye, Harvest
> Public Media,
> https://agupdate.com/agriview/news/crop/millets-could-aid-in-surviving-climate-change/article_8ff16c50-2f15-11ef-baca-332fa1b77163.html
>
> 2. You can see the old thread with the same title as this posting in
> Collab's June 2023 archive:
> https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2023-June/thread.html
>
> 3. "Linus Rothermich, Auxvasse, MO," National Association of Conservation
> Districts, (no date)
> https://www.nacdnet.org/soil-champs/north-central/linus-rothermich/
>
>
>
> bcc: Rob Myers
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 12:47?AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org>
> wrote:
>
> Thank you, David, I appreciate your sharing this. It's of course another
> version of the radio segment that aired last month on a more local scale
> (Kansas CIty, apparently):
>
> https://www.kcur.org/2023-05-17/millets-drought-climate-united-nations .
> Altho shorter, the NPR Morning Edition version captures all the main
> points. And of course it went out nationally in the US, which is great.
>
>
>
> Regarding the content of the segment, I'm particularly curious to know
> more about the Japanese millet (Echinochloa esculenta) that Linus
> Rothermich is growing - what are the markets for this grain in
> North America? I am aware of the plant's use as forage and for wildlife in
> the US.
>
>
>
> TIA for any more info,
>
>
>
> Don
>
>
> DO, EL, MI, US
>
> NAMA
>
>
>
> bcc: Rob Myers
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 9, 2023 at 1:18?PM Brenner, David (CTR) - REE-ARS <
> david.brenner@usda.gov> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets
>
>
> <https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets>
>
> The United Nations declares 2023 the International Year of Millets
> <https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets>
>
> Millets, an alternative crop to corn and soybeans, is getting new
> attention in the U.S. The resilient grain could help U.S. farmers survive
> climate change.
>
> www.npr.org
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely
> for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message
> or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law
> and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you
> have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete
> the email immediately.
>
>
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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2024 10:50:37 -0400
From: Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org>
To: collab@lists.millets2023.space
Subject: [Collab] Early history of proso millet in Europe (2022 book)
Message-ID:
        <CA+RHibVtE3Km7ob47LuNMj6_Ag-_ZymWvgKXNuL60SB-Yn79QQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Of possible interest:
Wiebke Kirleis, Marta Dal Corso, and Dragana Filipovi?. eds. 2022. *Millet
and What Else?: The Wider Context of the Adoption of Millet Cultivation in
Europe*. Sidestone Press.
https://www.sidestone.com/books/millet-and-what-else
(open access to download or read online; for sale as paperback or hardcover)

Abstract:
"Broomcorn/common/proso millet (*Panicum miliaceum*) is a cereal crop that
originated in East Asia and was transferred westward to Europe, where it
was introduced in the mid-2nd millennium BCE, at the height of the Bronze
Age. Archaeobotanists from the Collaborative Research Centre 1266,
supported by many colleagues, conducted a large-scale programme of
radiocarbon dating of millet grains from prehistoric Europe. They
discovered that the spread of this crop on the continent happened quickly,
extending far and wide.

"What do we know about the (pre)history of this crop in Europe? The
workshop organised by the CRC 1266 at Kiel University in 2019 encouraged
the discussion on the circumstances and consequences of early broomcorn
millet cultivation in Europe. This book brings together many of the
workshop papers and reflects the diverse topics and research areas covered.
The contributions inform us on the range of cultivated and collected plants
from the time before and after the start of millet cultivation in Europe;
present the cultural setting in which millet arrived; discuss possible
reasons driving the acceptance of this innovation; and reconstruct possible
uses of millet and the methods of its cultivation, processing and storage.
Not just the plant economy, but also the animal economy is represented,
since millet was and is grown for both humans and animals. Techniques used
to trace millet archaeologically are continually being developed or
improved, and this book describes the application of a few of them.

"This broad-based compilation of papers adds another layer to the dynamic
picture of the Bronze Age and the interconnected continent. It also
illustrates the complexity of the research on the diffusion of agricultural
innovations."

DO, EL, MI, US
NAMA
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------------------------------

End of Collab Digest, Vol 30, Issue 18
**************************************

--

Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe,

https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/

Destination North Pole--5,000 km by bicycle is an exciting, endearing, humorous, dangerous and sometimes quirky travel adventure. Hardcover, paperback and e-books are available on Amazon or other on-line retailers. My other books tie education, school system, parenting, technology, and business with 21st century culture and learning.