Pearl millet for grain in the Southeast US?
Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is grown in various parts of North America, mainly for forage or cover crop (an estimated 1.5 million acres in the US/1). It can be grown throughout the US./2 In a previous message I briefly discussed the northern limits of pearl millet cultivation (trials in Quebec & Michigan's Upper Peninsula)./3 Here I'd like to focus briefly on what may be a more promising North American regions for its cultivation for grain: beginning with the southeastern US My impression is that pearl millet is already more commonly grown in the latter region than elsewhere. According to an article by Univ. of Georgia Extension, it "has a long history of use as a summer grazing and hay crop in the southeastern United States."/4 By contrast, main locations of proso millet, sorghum, and teff in the US are, respectively, Colorado, Nebraska, and Idaho, About 20 years ago, a pearl millet hybrid suitable for grain production in the US was developed in Georgia./4 /5 A primary target for pearl millet grain was poultry diets, although the potential for use for human food was also mentioned. Interestingly, proso is also discussed as an alternative poultry feed. And US grown proso is already established as a minor grain for human consumption. Anyway, two decades after the pearl millet variety for grain was introduced, it is not clear how much of it is now grown for what. There was a brief discussion on LinkedIn recently with a grower in Kansas who had success with grain pearl millet in 2018, which one hopes isn't an isolated case. In any event, it would be interesting to have some statistics as well as other stories. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance don at milletsalliance.org Notes: 1. "Pearl Millet," Iowa State University, Extension and Outreach, Alternative Agriculture (last revision 2013?; PDF version indicates it was written by Dr. Rob Myers, 2002) https://www.extension.iastate.edu/alternativeag/cropproduction/pearlmillet.h... 2. "PEARL MILLET Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.," USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Guide, 2014 https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_pegl2.pdf 3. https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2022-March/000026.html 4. "Pearl Millet for Grain," Univ. of Georgia Extension, Bulletin 1216, 2002 (latest revision 2018) https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?pk_id=7172 5. "Pearl millet: A new crop for Southeast?" Sharon Durham, United States Department of Agriculture | Feb 07, 2003 https://www.farmprogress.com/pearl-millet-new-crop-southeast 6. Clint Brauer https://www.linkedin.com/posts/clintbrauer_joni-kindwall-moore-rn-this-was-t...
Such rich knowledge Don - thanks for sharing as usual. This makes me think that we should maximize all the efforts that will go into the millet webinar series and have some summaries or briefs or key points that come from these. It will be a unique collection of information with industry and academic inputs. It is more effort to do this but could be well worth it. Of course, how well this is done and then made available and promoted will make it worthwhile. I am sure we have the team to make this a success. We could even have a committee that reviews them so we ensure high quality and make this into eg a Brief series. Regards Joanna ________________________________ From: Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2022 3:43 PM To: collab@lists.millets2023.space <collab@lists.millets2023.space> Subject: [Collab] Pearl millet for grain in the Southeast US? Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is grown in various parts of North America, mainly for forage or cover crop (an estimated 1.5 million acres in the US/1). It can be grown throughout the US./2 In a previous message I briefly discussed the northern limits of pearl millet cultivation (trials in Quebec & Michigan's Upper Peninsula)./3 Here I'd like to focus briefly on what may be a more promising North American regions for its cultivation for grain: beginning with the southeastern US My impression is that pearl millet is already more commonly grown in the latter region than elsewhere. According to an article by Univ. of Georgia Extension, it "has a long history of use as a summer grazing and hay crop in the southeastern United States."/4 By contrast, main locations of proso millet, sorghum, and teff in the US are, respectively, Colorado, Nebraska, and Idaho, About 20 years ago, a pearl millet hybrid suitable for grain production in the US was developed in Georgia./4 /5 A primary target for pearl millet grain was poultry diets, although the potential for use for human food was also mentioned. Interestingly, proso is also discussed as an alternative poultry feed. And US grown proso is already established as a minor grain for human consumption. Anyway, two decades after the pearl millet variety for grain was introduced, it is not clear how much of it is now grown for what. There was a brief discussion on LinkedIn recently with a grower in Kansas who had success with grain pearl millet in 2018, which one hopes isn't an isolated case. In any event, it would be interesting to have some statistics as well as other stories. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance don at milletsalliance.org<http://milletsalliance.org> Notes: 1. "Pearl Millet," Iowa State University, Extension and Outreach, Alternative Agriculture (last revision 2013?; PDF version indicates it was written by Dr. Rob Myers, 2002) https://www.extension.iastate.edu/alternativeag/cropproduction/pearlmillet.h... 2. "PEARL MILLET Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.," USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Guide, 2014 https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_pegl2.pdf 3. https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2022-March/000026.html 4. "Pearl Millet for Grain," Univ. of Georgia Extension, Bulletin 1216, 2002 (latest revision 2018) https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?pk_id=7172 5. "Pearl millet: A new crop for Southeast?" Sharon Durham, United States Department of Agriculture | Feb 07, 2003 https://www.farmprogress.com/pearl-millet-new-crop-southeast 6. Clint Brauer https://www.linkedin.com/posts/clintbrauer_joni-kindwall-moore-rn-this-was-t...
Thank you, Joanna - I'm fortunate that there is so much to work with, information-wise! Your points about the proposed webinar series are on-target and appreciated. There is much to do to make this a reality. Next week, Joni, Jonathon and I will have a meeting about facilities and collaboration that have been offered to help the effort. More on that later. For those not familiar, the webinar series is a proposed set of a dozen episodes treating different topics related to millets, from history to agronomy, marketing to nutrition, and culinary qualities to the lesser known uses of these versatile grains. The time-line is steep, but we hope to have the series to the point where it can begin airing by the middle of 2023. All the best, Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 8:02 PM Joanna Kane-Potaka < joanna.kanepotaka@outlook.com> wrote:
Such rich knowledge Don - thanks for sharing as usual.
This makes me think that we should maximize all the efforts that will go into the millet webinar series and have some summaries or briefs or key points that come from these. It will be a unique collection of information with industry and academic inputs. It is more effort to do this but could be well worth it. Of course, how well this is done and then made available and promoted will make it worthwhile. I am sure we have the team to make this a success. We could even have a committee that reviews them so we ensure high quality and make this into eg a Brief series.
Regards Joanna ------------------------------ *[ . . . ]*
participants (2)
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Don Osborn -
Joanna Kane-Potaka