I'm curious to know more about the numbers of producers growing grain millets (broadly defined) in North America, with focus here on the US. That would mean proso millet, teff, and sorghum. I'll begin with teff.
A while back, I came across mention of there being 11 growers of teff for grain in the US state of Nevada. On this email list, we heard about two growers of grain teff in Oklahoma. There is one in the state if Michigan that I know of. And an article earlier this year/1 said that the Boise, Idaho-based Teff Co. typically worked with 15-20 producers, and was planning to double that number.
So, it seems that the overall number of grain teff producers in the US is rather small: "Relatively few U.S. producers grow teff, with almost all production in Nevada or Idaho..."/2
Maybe the total number is less than 100?
With numbers on this order of magnitude, it would be feasible to manage direct communication for sharing of information (surveys, publicity...).
What about the number of grain proso millet producers? I found no figures, but looking at 2019 stats from Colorado - the biggest proso-producing state - we can do some math. If the average farm size there is just over 800 acres,/3 and the total number of acres of proso that year was 320,000 (a banner year),/4 that would mean that 400 average-sized farms devoted entirely to proso could account for the total proso production.
However, it seems more likely that producers would devote only part of their land to one such crop. So, for example, 1600 producers in Colorado devoting 200 acres each to proso, could account for the total. So, maybe one could count an average of 1500-2000 producers of proso in that state? (Which would be around 5% of the 38,700 farms and ranches there).
So the number of grain proso producers nationally would be in the low thousands? This is a significant number, even if a small percentage of total farmers in the country.
The number of sorghum farmers is likely higher.
Whatever the actual numbers of producers of grain millets - and any more accurate figures or estimates are welcome - it is useful, I think, to have a clearer picture of the population of farmers in this sector as we plan for the International Year of Millets.
DO, EL, MI, US
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