You wondered if Argentina was back into the export market. NO. They produce and export an insignificant portion of the world's millet since 1980. That was absolutely my concern in the late 1970s for U.S. proso, because once a country loses its internal seed suppliers, farmers, and marketing system, it is extremely difficult to reestablish production. When farmers told me in late fall of 1978 that they could not get any price, $0.00, for their white proso, I knew the U.S. was on the verge of losing proso as an alternative crop. Therefore, my best alternative was to replace Argentina's dull colored "Yellow Plata" with U.S. white proso in the export market at Argentine prices. After a couple years, there was no incentive for Argentine farmers to plant their proso. Their market died. How? See Table 35 page 76 (below) of my book Proso Millet: A Trade Summary. 1979 Showed record percentage as exports which were accumulated from 1977, 1978, and 1979 production. Since a white proso export market was established in 1979, exporters and foreign importers created demand allowing U.S. farmers to produce for what became an established market. [image: image.png] See figure 15 page 79 which explains that farmers, nor buyers, knew that U.S. excess millet supplies had been lowered significantly. As a result, farmers planted little proso in 1980. When buyers for exporters in the fall of 1980 realized they could not fill contracts, the price shot up. That had to happen in order to perpetuate production thereafter. (Remember, it was the fall of 1983, as a grain terminal market manager,that I accumulated and exported the first and only unit train of U.S. proso.) My drive to develop proso millet market links, did so much damage to Argentine production that growers and exporters lost incentive. Their market died. The same thing can happen in any country on any crop! Here is publicly available information from Millet Production in Argentina - Markets, Suppliers and Exporters (selinawamucii.com) <https://www.selinawamucii.com/insights/market/argentina/millet/>. [image: image.png] I am happy that you and others in NAMA are realizing the importance of millets as a U.S. crop rotation alternative.....Gary On Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 5:00 AM <collab-request@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Gary Wietgrefe on Proso Millet (Don Osborn)
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Message: 1 Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2023 19:43:52 -0500 From: Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> To: Gary Wietgrefe <gww374@gmail.com> Cc: collab@lists.millets2023.space Subject: Re: [Collab] Gary Wietgrefe on Proso Millet Message-ID: < CA+RHibW+WNNOqVcccVaNTq_NFZVtH0VCjdU-3zB3+civx0XePA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Thank you, Gary. I appreciate your telling us more of your experience with millets. Some interesting details there (I wonder if Argentina has gotten back into the millets exporting market?).
I'll be posting separately a request from the FAO for millets stories, and imagine that they would be interested in what you have to say.
In the meantime, I'd encourage other subscribers (we are almost 50 now) to share something about their interest in and work with millets - as well as questions you may have about these grains or any aspect of their cultivation and use.
Best to you and all, Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 2:12 PM Gary Wietgrefe <gww374@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you for investigating my earlier millet work. No, I have not updated either Proso Millet: A Trade Summary nor Proso Millet: A Farmer's Guide.
Let me give you a brief background. We grew millet on our farm (near Ipswich, Edmunds Co., SD) which was mainly planted in slough areas that were too wet to plant to small grains and corn in spring. Foxtail millets we usually cut for hay. Fast forward. In 1978 I was hired by the SD Dept. of Agriculture in a new "Marketing Division" established earlier that year by the SD Legislature. The six of us received calls, telexes, and letters from all over, especially farmers struggling with low commodity prices. One day our boss, Marketing Director Dale Gullickson, received a call from a farmer who could not get anybody to pay him anything for his proso millet grain. $0.00. Our boss hollers back to our offices and asks, "Anybody know anything about millet?" I said, "We grew it occasionally on our farm." Mr. Gullickson responded, "You're the millet guy." For the next four years I handled all millet inquiries. Better yet, having access to our Department library, and the USDA, and US Commerce data, I realized millets were surviving on a thin, unorganized thread stringing together a few millet producers in four states (SD, ND, NE, an CO) to a handful of seed companies, grain elevators, and birdseed packagers. To summarize, I flew to Winnipeg, met with a company that offered $3.70/cwt to anybody (producer, elevator, trucker) that could get white proso to Duluth, MN before freeze-up. That two-hour visit established a price and a continuous international demand for proso. By Dec. 1981 after leading a USDA sponsored trade team to Europe, the U.S. was established as the primary supplier of millets to Europe which by then had basically driven Argentina out of production. (Argentine Yellow Plata, likewise had few producers, few buyers, and few exporters that did not survive the new U.S. organized production and marketing.) Visiting the Rotterdam Grain Exchange in Dec. 1981 the only millet traded on their Floor (where actual millet samples were displayed) was "Dakota White Proso" and "Colorado White Proso." The difference? Colorado was a brighter white. Dakota white proso often gets fall rains after windrowing giving the seed coat a grayish tint.
In January 1983 I left the Governor's Office of Economic Development and helped start what became (at the time) South Dakota's largest grain terminal and SD's largest millet buyer. To date, I believe I am the only person that ever put together a unit train of millet. Being, in effect, the U.S. "millet guy", for many years I answered calls and millet letter inquiries from around the world. That is why I wrote "Proso Millet: A Trade Summary." Thereafter, when I made a call or returned a letter, I'd mention, "I have a millet marketing book, if you are interested." I printed 500 copies of that Trade Summary and charged $100/copy (for the first copy and $17/each for additional). Farmers said it was fine to have a millet marketing book, but they needed a millet production guide. So in 1990, using my agronomic experience, I wrote and released Proso Millet: A Farmer's Guide. Within a couple years I had those books in twenty- some countries. Since they were both hand written, I hired a lady that could read my writing and she put them on floppy discs for printing. By 2016 I had been basically out of the Trade Summary for years, and had a couple hundred Farmer's Guides remaining, so I hired a company to convert them to digital and made both books available on ResearchGate for free. Now they are accessible all over the world and downloaded every week (mainly the Farmer's Guide).
I have four copies of Proso Millet: A Trade Summary remaining for $100/each. The fifth to last I sold to a California book collector last summer. I have about 180 left of Proso Millet: A Farmer's Guide which I get $15/each and they can be ordered from my website Culture, Learning, and Adventure Books (relatingtoancients.com) <https://www.relatingtoancients.com/>.
If you want a 2 1/2 minute diversion, I published a YouTube video after touring a Monarch butterfly winter sanctuary in Mexico this week. I tied in my poem Migrating Monarchs with their winter sanctuary and ended with a brief view of my Ipswich, SD farm. See https://youtu.be/RBU6bhY-xug .
Historic local production and international millet data as I printed in the Trade Summary, is even more difficult to get now. I am not aware of anyone else who has put in effort to independently publish any millet data.
Sorry for the long answer to your short question. Let me know if you have others....Gary Wietgrefe
On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 10:33 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Thank you, Gary, for this posting about your work on proso and other millets. Much information here, and I look forward to delving into some of it.
I had the chance to peruse your 1989 book, "Proso MIllet: A Trade Summary" (140 pp.),/1 /2 and found it to be packed with information and observations. I'm not aware of how often this has been referenced in later work on proso or other millets (which are mentioned), but it merits attention for anyone researching the evolution and future of millets in North America (noting also mentions of other millets and other regions). Have you done any revisions or updates to this work?
All the best, Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
Notes: 1.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284179731_Proso_Millet_A_Trade_Summ...
2. Noting that this book, which is listed as self-published, is apparently on the shelf in only 2 university libraries, in MN & SD: https://www.worldcat.org/title/19790852
On Wed, Feb 1, 2023 at 10:50 AM Gary Wietgrefe via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
This millet collaboration is exciting! For many decades I have been trying to keep millet, especially proso, a viable crop. I'll skip the earlier years, and rather than summarize my millet books, research, and videos, I encourage you to access them for free at ResearchGate and YouTube links below. ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gary-Wietgrefe/research> --1989-book: Proso Millet: A Trade Summary --1990-book: How to Produce Proso Millet: A Farmer's Guide --2006-research in Turkey: Effect of Seeding Rate and Nitrogen Fertilization on Proso Millet Under Dryland and Irrigated Conditions --2022--research in Mongolia: Ancient Proso Millet and the Twentieth-Century Survival of Mongolia (12) wietgrefe millet - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wietgrefe+millet> --2021--video: Proso Millet: Preparing to Harvest --2021--video: Harvesting Proso Millet for High Quality Food --2022--video: How to Produce Proso Millet: Seed to Germination
I look forward to learning more about other millet efforts....Gary Wietgrefe -- 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.
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-- 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.
