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-clima...
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-t...
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
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