Japanese Millet for Wet Soils and Waterlogged Areas
Watch Keith Berns and Dale Strickler walk through Japanese millet in our summer test plots. You'll learn why Japanese millet thrives where other cover crops fail—in standing water and mud flats—and how it can fill wet spots that would otherwise grow nothing but smart weeds.
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0:00 Most of our grasses that we use as cover crops don't really like wet feed or
0:05 Waterlogged soils, but this is Japanese millet and it's an exception because it does very well in.
0:11 Waterlogged soils and doesn't mind wet feed at all and for that reason it's got some special niches that it can.
0:18 Fill in those wetland areas.
0:22 Dale, tell us a little bit about Japanese millet and how it compares to some of the.
0:26 Other millets and again where and why you use it, it's probably comparable yield wise to like the foxtail millets.
0:34 You know white wonder or german millet, of course it grows in places where other summer
0:42 Annuals fail you know standing water the seed can also be broadcast pretty well into mud flats.
0:58 In more humid areas, especially places with terrace channels or places with standing water potholes, I like to put a
1:06 Little Japanese millet in the mix because you don't end up with drown out spots.
1:10 That grow nothing but smart weeds. You get good forage over the entire field instead of having those areas of.
1:17 No production. Seeds also pretty good wildlife value. Ducks really like it as you might expect. In fact the biggest user of this is the waterfowl industry.
1:32 Good forage value even after it matures. It's still pretty decent, it doesn't get as lignified as some of the other summer annual grasses in the winter. So probably not the highest quality forage of anything, but in areas where you're prone to drowning out it might be your best choice. It beats a mud hole.