We felt that this press release on the potential of millets was timely in the wake of reports that the rise in fertilizer prices is leading to some farmers in the US deciding not to plant as much this year. See, for example, this article in Forbes based on a Farm Bureau survey: "70% Of Farmers Can’t Afford To Grow All Their Crops," by Erik Sherman, Forbes, Apr 28, 2026 https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2026/04/28/70-of-farmers-cant-affor... Timing is also important, given where we are already in the planting calendar. With fertilizer being an issue, against the backdrop of hotter and drier conditions in much of the continent, it seems like a good time to focus attention on millets. There are no miracles here, of course, but millets, with their diverse advantages, seem made for the moment. Another piece to the picture is the marketing and consumer side - how can grain millets, beginning with proso which is already grown for food in North America - be made more attractive as a go to in our food culture(s)? DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 12:58 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 4, 2026
*North American Millets Alliance*
*Not Enough Fertilizer this Year? Consider Millets*
If fertilizer is scarce or unavailable for corn, what are planting options? Have you considered any of the millets?
Replacing corn with soybeans is the most logical choice, but buildup of cyst nematodes prohibits replanting soybeans on last year’s soybean ground.
Land prices and cropland rent are too high to leave ground idle. Just as costly is fallow syndrome if the ground is kept bare. Cover crops are a better option than black fallow. It may be best to plant a species of millet for grain or forage.
Millets need fertilizer like any other crop. However, they are excellent nutrient scavengers, so application rates are only a fraction of that needed for corn. A general recommendation is that fifty pounds of nitrogen is removed per ton of forage. *
*Pearl millet*, a tall, high-protein leafy grass, can break the nematode cycle. Economically planted at two to ten pound per acre in rows or drilled in narrow rows, pearl millet can be cut multiple times for forage, grazed through first frost without fears of prussic acid, or could be left as a cover crop over the winter.
Corn Belt farmers should consider *Japanese millet* or *Chiwapa millet*, a variety of the closely related billion-dollar grass, for grain or forage. Chiwapa can take wet ground better than Japanese, although both are better in this regard than most other millets. Unlike pearl millet, which regrows after cutting, Japanese and Chiwapa should only be cut once. These crops could be harvested as a food grain, but finding processors may be a challenge, and the potential specialty market for the grains (typically under the name, barnyard millet) is limited.
*Teff* is an extremely small-seeded millet that can be harvested for grain, or used as an excellent, leafy forage crop. The U.S. market for teff as a food grain is increasing, but buyers are limited – much of teff grain production is grown under contract. At over a million seeds per pound, if harvesting teff for grain, best have holes plugged on your grain truck.
Don’t want a four-to-five-foot forage crop like pearl millet? The shorter *brown top millet* and *foxtail millet* are excellent for wildlife, as cover crops, and make nutritious forage. Grains from either of these millets can be used as a food grain or potentially exported, but commercial-scale U.S. food processing is not available.
The best grain millet currently in North America, and the poorest forage millet, is *proso millet*. About a half-million acres of proso grain are harvested every year in the U.S. Food uses for proso grain in the U.S. and Canada, as well as exports, continue to expand, although most proso is currently used as wild bird food. Proso has a slightly higher feed value than corn in poultry rations, and it can be ground for cattle and hog feeds.
All millets can be used to produce ethanol, but proso is comparable to corn.
Fertilizer recommendations for proso grain are based on University of Nebraska soil test zero-to-eight-inch depth for all nutrients except nitrogen where a subsoil sample from 30 to 36 inches is recommended.
*Fertilizer Recommendation for Proso Millet Grain***
[ FOR TABLE - SEE ATTACHED FULL PRESS RELEASE ]
*Soil Fertility Management for Forage Crops: Maintenance, Nitrogen Management for Grasses, Penn State Extension, August 19, 2025.
**Fertilizing Proso Millet (NebGuide G1945), University of Nebraska, May 2009.