"Barnyard millet" is our millet of the month in August. It's actually two separate but very closely related species - Echinochloa esculenta, called Japanese barnyard millet, or commonly in the US, simply Japanese millet, and E. frumentacea, called Indian barnyard millet, or sometimes in the US, "billion dollar grass." I understand that the term Japanese millet sometimes covers the latter as well. Sometimes their predecessor (wild) species are referenced as well - E. crus-galli and E. colona, respectively (altho there has been some discussion of those relationships). The "barnyard millets" are cultivated in North America as cover crops, for forage, and for wildlife. I am not aware of any barnyard millet cultivated ast scale or commercially for food. There was an instance of an Echinochloa species called "ankee" that grown for food by the Mohave a century ago, that I reported on this list last year - that post & ensuing thread can be accessed at https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2024-July/thread.html#561 . No further info on that at this time. This past April, I contacted a seed seller in Kentucky - Roundstone Native Seed, LLC - to inquire about a note they had on a webpage about Japanese millet. The link to the page is https://roundstoneseed.com/wildlife-food-plot-seed/284-japanese-millet.html and the note on it was (and is still): "We are working to source seed that is for human consumption and will make pages for that available once we have the seed available." In response to my inquiry about whether there might be any developments on this, they kindly replied that they still haven't found any such seed. Personally, I'm intrigued by the potential for Japanese (barnyard) millet - E. esculenta - as an alternative grain crop in the more humid zones of North America. There would be a long road before that might become a reality, however. One quick story about the use of Japanese millet for wildlife and hunting. About a year and a half ago, ast year my son and I visited a Michigan DNR field in the vicinity of Rose Lake near Bath, MI. that had old posted signage relating to pheasant hunting. By chance I happened to see on the side of the large field (there was a clearing around it and a copse of trees in its middle) the dried head and stem of what was clearly an Echinochloa species. Clearly this had been planted there and cut. Went back this year but the field had been used for hay production with quite a number of round bales present. There were no plant remains I could identify to give any clues about the species or mix planted. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance