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| Ok I got some pearl millet to grow for hay. My grain drill has a chart that inlcudes alfalfa, safflower, oats,milo and several other grains on it but no millet. I wondered if anyone else has tried drilling with a normal grain drill? It seems like it would be somewhere between alfalfa and milo but maybe I am wrong. Anyone else try this? In past we had rented the grass seeder from the county office but for no more than I am doing this time I would rather not waste the time to go after if I can avoid it. Once again, thanks to you many knowledge folks out there! |
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Central ND | Im no help on the chart.... But it is small seed so pick a crop with the same weight and size. drive on some hard ground and see how heavy it seeds. There is no problems seeding millet with grain drils if you can get it calibrated correctly.Put in a sack and measure how far it goes.Ive done it many times.Its pretty forgivng is you get too much or two little seed on.Better to have it too thick than thin though. |
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Eastern NC | We have drilled pearl millet and browntop before with a Great Plains drill. It was the no-till version with the wheels on the end of the box. On that drill the settings for millet are very close to the settings for Rye. I am not sure what tyoe of drill you have but you may be able to see more rate charts on the website. |
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West Texas | Pearl millet should be close enough in size and weight to milo and sorghum that you should have a starting point. |
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Mulhall, Oklahoma | we used 20 lbs safflower = 15lbs pearl millet You want to plant around 20 lbs
Edited by rpmcbsq 7/2/2010 17:51
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West Central Minnesota | I last seeded millet 25 or 30 years ago now. I do remember using a Melroe drill that I owned at the time. I made a partition in the drill with cardboard and duct tape so that only two or three runs had seed. I then caught the seed in a bag of some kind while I drove what should have been the distance to seed one acre and calibrated from there. It came out very close. |
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NW Oklahoma | Does your drill have a setting for sudan? My chart for Great Plains 3s-3000 says settings for millet are the same as sudan. Milo setting for 22 lbs =19 lbs millet. |
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West Texas | We used to plant a lot of it for seed with Tye drills. Settings were close to sorghum if I remember right. But it's been a long time. We had it wrote on the inside of the lid next to the chart. But they've been gone from here for several years now.
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| plant millet with drill all the time use the sorguhm setting to get started |
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Saronville NE | Have planted alot of millet, pearl and foxtail with a Crustbuster notill drill, to get anywheres close we had to use the alfalfa setting even on the pearl that looked like milo seed. |
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Texas | ahay is correct. The seed is very small and you don't want to plant nearly as much as you would for sorghum. Pearl Millet will easily compensate for a thin stand. I plant it at 3 lbs. to the acre and that requires a very low setting. If you seed it too thick and it gets dry, it won't be as drought tolerant as you would like. If you seed it too thin and you get rain, it will tiller and grow well. I'm dryland farming and you have rain so you can plant 10 lbs and not get hurt. From my experience though, you will not see a bigger return on your seed costs like with other crops. The great thing about Pearl Millet is that it's very forgiving if you have rain. If you are afraid not to seed it "thick", try a strip or two at 3 lbs to the acre and report back at harvest time. You will be suprised at how well it will do for you. Pearl Millet makes me think about something my Dad told me when I was a kid. He sent me into the local garden store to buy some garden seed. After listing the crops he wanted to plant in the garden, he said when you get to the zuchinni, "just work one seed out of the packet and put it back. One seed is all we will need to plant!" He was kidding about the one seed, but he wasn't kidding by much. |
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NW IA | tallgrassneil - 7/2/2010 16:42
Pearl millet should be close enough in size and weight to milo and sorghum that you should have a starting point.
Dang close to grain sorghum so I'd, and have, just followed the rates/settings for sorghum. |
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drill millet with a grain drill anybody?
