Problems with Pearl Millet

[coalburner]

I have a question about a poor stand of hybid pearl millet? We planted 25#'s of seed per acre on April 29th(to prevent frost damage) on 10 acres. I disked as aggressive as my disk would cut, then packed with a 300 gallon propane tank filled with water. Then drilled with a Tye 7ft. no-till set as shallow as we could (about 1/2"). Fertilized it on May 13th after about 3" growth with 30-0-20 @ 175lbs per acre. Plenty of rain, as i am located 60 miles south of Shreveport, LA in Sabine Parish. Some of the millet finally made it to 30" height, but majority was around 12 to 24 inches. Finally cut today, just got tired of waiting I guess? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreaciated. Thanks

 

[BC]

What variety did you plant? There are forage types and grain types. The grain types have been bred for shorter stalks to make combining the grain easier.

 

[Banjo]

Did you plant the dwarf variety? If I recall, there is a normal and a dwarf variety.

 

[coalburner]

not sure, bought the seed from east texas seed supply in tyler texas. Thought it was for hay production, best i can remember. There was a few stalks about 4 ft tall. I thought i might have planted too deep but that was is just a guess?

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have a question about a poor stand of hybid pearl millet? We planted 25#'s of seed per acre on April 29th(to prevent frost damage) on 10 acres. I disked as aggressive as my disk would cut, then packed with a 300 gallon propane tank filled with water. Then drilled with a Tye 7ft. no-till set as shallow as we could (about 1/2"). Fertilized it on May 13th after about 3" growth with 30-0-20 @ 175lbs per acre. Plenty of rain,

Got issues here too with no till annuals. Was the stand thin or short of both?

 

[coalburner]

The stand was thin and short. Don't think I will get the high tonnage per acre production I was hoping for.

 

[1982vett]

Would "plenty of rain" mean to much rain....other than that and a fertility problem, it would almost have to be seed variety.

Not sure why you would have gotten a thin crop with planting 25#/acre. I've always gotten a good stand in poor moisture conditions planting 15#/acre.

 

[coalburner]

Thanks again for your inputs! We have received quite a bit of rain this summer, so i am not for sure too much rain could have been a problem. I had a soil test 2 years ago, and numbers came back okay. Do you think maybe just broadcasting and dragging lightly would have produced a better stand? Or trying a different variety? thanks

 

[Jogeephus]

This may or may not have anything to do with it but with the quirky weather we had this year some of the hayfields bolted early and the yield is going to be poor. Additionally, the corn here is going to be weak as well even though we had plenty of rain. A fella I know has a pile of corn planted and was upset about it enough to bring in an agronomist to look at things. He stated that while we had plenty of moisture we didn't have enough of that hot cloudless days for the plants to grow properly. Based on what I've seen with my stuff I think the answer may have something to do with these two things.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I have ALWAYS got a better stand on disc ground by broadcasting

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have ALWAYS got a better stand on disc ground by broadcasting

Any idea why?

 

[Stocker Steve]

Asked my seed guy a similar question. He blamed the Round up burn down ;-) , but I waited 2 weeks to plant...