Forwarding this item by our NAMA colleague and agronomist, Gary Wietgrefe. One quick note - this millet is also known as Indian barnyard millet. Together with Japanese, or Japanese barnyard, millet and their respective precursor wild relatives (that I understand are sometimes also cultivated), this “barnyard” group is a complex and closely related set of species.
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary Wietgrefe <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 4:25 PM Subject: Chiwapa Millet To: Don Osborn <[email protected]>, Joni Kindwall-Moore < [email protected]> For agronomic purposes, I did a bit of searching for millets best for wet soils. I have not worked with Chiwapa millet but it is *Echinochloa frumentacea *(better known as billion dollar grass). I have no experience with it. Apparently, it is a long season (120 day) millet used across the South in wet ground to attract gamebirds--primarily ducks. It appears Chiwapa millet (*Echinochloa frumentacea*) does better (standability and sustainability) in wet and saturated soils than Japanese millet (*Echinochloa esculenta*). *Seed is available* across the South. So if some culinary users want to try it, they should order seed before it is treated for planting. Likely, it would need to be conditioned, probably removing the seed coat, before turning it into flour. Here are a few links including suppliers and research: *Chiwapa*: http://www.chiwapa.com/aac_planting.php *Handcock Seed*: https://hancockseed.com/products/chiwapa-millet-seed?_pos=1&_psq=chiwapa&_ss=e&_v=1.0 *Specialty Seed*: https://specialtyseed.com/about-chiwapa-millet/ *Research*: *No-Till Farmer*: ttps:// www.no-tillfarmer.com/ext/resources/files/2021/NRCS%20Trials/flpmcsr13551.pdf *USDA-NRCS*: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/gapmcsr13555.pdf We should probably use Chiwapa millet as a reference name for *Echinochloa frumentacea* and keep it separate from Japanese millet *Echinochloa esculenta*. In India Chiwapa millet is apparently called Indian Barnyard millet or Sama Rice, but I don't think we should use either of those names in North America. On our farm (northcentral South Dakota) we used foxtail millets because our wheat, oats and barley fields were planted in April and many sloughs would not dry out until June. When they did, a thin crust would form and the bare-ground sloughs which allowed us to run a tractor and grain drill across and shallow (<1 in.) plant foxtail millet in sloughs mostly an acre or less. Our intent was only to harvest forage-not seed. In the fall (September) we would cut it for hay. However, I would only recommend foxtail in Michigan for forage on dry soils only when saturated soils dry out and likely would not flood again. Followup flooding will kill the foxtail millet. Saturated or flooded soils may be best to plant Chiwapa millet for forage and wildlife.....Gary Wietgrefe -- Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel adventure, poetry, and history. -- Collab mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
