I have been planting pearl millet since 1983.
I prefer the dwarf millet like Tiff Leaf 3 as it has a smaller forage type stem and is more palatable.
In 2012, Tiff Leaf 3 will not be plentiful, due to the drought issues in Texas. Better get it now if you want any as it may already be gone.
In past years, when seed was what I would call cheap; I planted 20-40 lbs/acre (conventional drill) and when seed was higher, like this year, less seed/ac works just as well along with a further spacing 10-16 inches apart. Alot here depends on your rain events and whether or not your fields will be under irrigation.
For 600-800 wt cattle my stocking rates are normally 8-10 head per acre when limit grazed (3-4 hours per day) -- If you plan to just plant it and put them on it full time -- stop reading here and go back to what you did before millet.
It is a waste of valuable forage to put them on it and let them graze it off free choice because those size calves will get the nutritional requirement in 3-4 hours per day of grazing. In my neck of the woods, it's very hot and we graze cattle between daybreak and 10am and calves spend the hotter parts of the day seeking shade anyway. In the late afternoon we feed them 4 lbs per head of a 12% ration in order to maintain a total protein intake per day that is in excess of 3.0 ADG. I use this protocol when conditioning bulls on our ranch bull test every Summer and Most of them are gaining in excess of 3.5 lbs per day and some better than that. Bulls that gain less than 3 lbs per day are culled after the 2nd weigh in.
There is only one problem with Millet and usually human error. DO NOT apply N preplant especially on dryland plantings because of the very good possibility of Nitrates. It is ok to apply P and K preplant, but wait until after the first grazing event (begin grazing at 18 inches tall and graze down to 4 inches). This works better because of a better root system and the time between grazing events when Millet is in re-growth ( 7-10 days). Regardless of whether Millet is on dryland or irrigated land I always send off a forage analysis to check Nitrates before grazing begins. A 20 dollar test is cheaper than dead cattle every time.
We plant Tiff Leaf 3 when the soil temp reaches 65 degrees, which in a normal year, for us, is April 15th (tax day for most of us). By May 15th, with ample rain, it should be 18 inches tall and after a Nitrates check (even if no N was applied) ready to graze. It really grows fast, so my advice is to have plenty of hungry calves to graze it or you will have to recruit some older cows to help graze it off -- or you will be doing a lot of mowing. Millet requires a pH of 5.4 (minimum) and prefers 5.8 up to 6.2.
If you plant millet on fine soils (clay) do not strip graze your fields, because compaction will stunt millet growth. Compaction will also cause water to stand in your fields and promote chinch bug infestations which can ruin a nice field of millet.
On spring calving cows we normally "limit graze" 6 cow/calf pairs per acre (3-4 hours per day) then put them on unfertilized native grass the remainder of the day.
Regardless of class of cattle grazed on Millet, you need to be offer free-choice High Mg mineral. I use it year round, but if you don't, then cattle need to be started on High Mg mineral 3 weeks before they begin grazing.
I normally pull cattle off Millet in August shoot the N to it and let it head out and sell dove hunts beginning Labor Day to the crazy bird hunters that are willing to pay 200 dollars/day to shoot 12 birds.
This also makes these fields profitable 2 times instead of just one time.
I think that's it.
JS
Lon":16m3xoft said:
tncattle":16m3xoft said:
Anyone plant Pearl Millet to graze in late summer early fall? I'm wondering how much grazing I could get out of about 25 acres of it for 550-600 lb. stockers (probably 70-80 of them. I know a lot depends on how well it does etc. but just pickin you all's brains a little.
i have been wondering this as well. i was reading a study about grazing hayfield with dairy cows vs. putting it up as feed with machines and then having to feed it somewhere on the internet. in the study it was saying that the grazing equivalent compared to haying it was every 800 lbs of hay that the field would put up euqled 1 AUM. this to me seemed kind of streching it though for lactating cows but i dont know so i was thinking about trying to plant a bit of it and haying half of it and grazing half to see how it worked out. if it did work out like that than i think it would be a great cause my thought were i could always plant some of it and than if it got drier than normal would have more grazing if needed in that situation and if didnt need it could always wrap it up and feed it in the winter. Maybe someone with alot more knowledge on the subject could chime in and say if there is any truth to the bit i was reading or not.
