Proso millet, also known as Pancium miliaceum L., could give growers a much-needed option for diversifying predominately wheat-based cropping systems. Millets are generally amongst the most suitable crops for sustaining agriculture and food security on marginal lands with low fertility.
Millets are small-seeded annual cereals grown for food, feed, forage, and fuel. This crop sustains more than one-third of the world’s population and ranks as the world’s 6th most important cereal grain. There have been 20 different species of millets cultivated throughout the world at different points in time.
Proso millet was first introduced to Canada and in the 17th century and was used in a limited way as a forage crop in the early 1900s. It is a highly nutritious cereal used for human consumption, bird seed, and/or ethanol production.
Compared to other major cereals such as wheat, rice and maize, millet is a major source of energy and protein, containing high nutritive value and significant amounts of essential amino acids. Millets are gluten free and easy to digest. They contain a high amount of lecithin, which provides excellent support for the nervous system health. It is rich in micronutrients such as niacin, B-complex vitamins, vitamins B6 and folic acid. Millets also have higher fat content than maize, rice and sorghum.
Proso millet is most frequently grown as a late-seeded summer crop, consisting a growing season of 60-100 days. This annual grass can be grown on sandy loam, slightly acidic, saline, and low-fertility soils. It thrives in low pH soils and most of its seeds germinate well on soils with pH levels of 5.5 to 6.5. Proso millet can grow up to 30 to 100 cm tall, with few tillers and an adventitious root system.
Unique characteristics, such as drought and heat tolerance, make proso millet a promising alternative cash crop for small farms in Canada.
Dryland Genetics, a plant breeding start-up, was founded by scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Iowa State University. The start-up focuses on building a more resilient, more efficient food supply by applying cutting-edge breeding and genomics technologies to crops such as proso millet.
Dryland Genetics had the chance to try seed of two new varieties of proso millet – DLG 40 and DLG 240.
“The DLG 240 looked like it would yield a bit more all season, when we harvested it, we were pleased with the yields. It was 33% higher yielding than our regular millet,” shares Kent Kalcevic, a farmer who tried the new DLG 240 variety of proso millet. “It was also more consistent throughout the field and later maturing and that gave it the chance to add more yield.”
Prices of proso millet are expected to be higher than corn and roughly matching the current price of wheat at between $8-10/bushel.