Millet is ... Crops

The tradition of cooking millet porridge goes back to the deep past. Millet is the oldest cereal that has come to Russia from China or Mongolia. The grinded grain of the plant is millet.

Main Processing Areas

To date, up to 500 millet species are known. Cultivation of culture is traditionally occupied by residents of areas with arid and semi-arid climate. Asia (China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) accounts for more than 55% of world production of millet. African countries (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal) - up to 25%. In the post-Soviet space, mainly millet is cultivated in the steppe regions of Ukraine and Kazakhstan as a food grain, and in the Republic of Belarus - as forage.

Millet in Russia

On the territory of the Russian Federation there are 8 plant species, and only 2 of them are cultivated: common millet - Panicum muliaceum L. (grain) and capitate - Setaria italica L (green mass for livestock feed).

Depending on the assemblage of the inflorescences, common millet has 5 subspecies: oval and lumpy (cultivated as thermophilic and drought-resistant), sprawling and spreading (less thermophilic, can grow even in non-Black Earth) and compressed (drooping).

Setaria (Italian, borout millet) is cultivated in the Far East. It has 2 subspecies - a chumise and a mohair.

The main crops of common millet are concentrated in Western Siberia, Bashkiria, in the Central Chernozem region, in the fertile lands of the North Caucasus. The areas, sown with early ripening millet varieties, are constantly increasing in the Non-Black Earth and Eastern Siberia.

Biological features

Millet is a one-year, self-pollinating, light-loving plant. Vegetation is short - from two to four months. With a wide-sided planting gives from seven hollow stems, usually bushy - 2-3 stems.

The main crops (rye, wheat, barley, oats) have narrower leaves on the stem than millet. Inflorescences - panicles of different types: from spreading to lumpy.

Roots can penetrate to a one and a half meter depth, but the main supply mass is located in the layer up to 40 centimeters.

Growth after emergence is slow (2-3 weeks), for this reason, the plant is not resistant to fast-growing weeds. Millet is a plant that is demanding for a moisture reserve in the upper soil layer: the more moisture, the faster the development of the nodal roots. Under adverse conditions, lodging of crops with blowing and rooting can occur. The intensity of tillering depends on the moisture reserve, the availability of nutrients, the favorable timing of sowing (from May 15), the required depth of seeding (5 cm), the minimum of weeds.

Agrotechnics

Millet serves as a good safety net in the case when other crops (both winter and spring) did not rise or perish. This is due to late planting dates - from mid-May to June. Seeds begin to sprout together only at high enough temperatures - from 14 degrees, the best temperature is from 18 degrees.

Millet is a plant that is demanding of the soil structure : the highest yield is noted on structural chernozems and chestnut soils (up to 50 quintals per hectare). Cultivated lands with a neutral and slightly alkaline reaction with a sufficient supply of moisture can produce stably high yields.

Due to the fact that weediness in weeds leads to a decrease in yield, it is necessary to carefully prepare the soil for sowing: snow retention, early harrowing (when the first weeds have already germinated), up to three subsequent cultivation with high clogging.

To obtain stable yields in the spring, it is necessary to apply fertilizers - calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen. This is not necessary if the progenitors of millet were potatoes or beets: soil fertility remains high. Good yields of millet yields after winter crops. In monoculture, it is killed by fungal diseases.

The main pests of the plant are thrips, midge, cicada, stalk moth.

Yield of millet in Russia leaves much to be desired: from 8 to 12 centners per hectare, although in Soviet times in Kazakhstan, the well-known throughout the country, Chaganak Bersiyev in 1941 received a harvest of almost 156 quintals per hectare, and in 1943 - 201.

Food Importance

The weight of millet for food has passed the test of time: millet in Russia ranks second after buckwheat.

Croup is processed grain. Millet, freed only from a coarse flower shell, is called a drake. After grinding, millet is obtained. Droblenka - a by-product in grinding. And the newfangled flakes are the result of thermal and mechanical processing of the millet itself.

The popularity of millet is determined by nutrition (up to 13% of protein, almost 81% of starch, up to 3.8% of fat), balanced taste (trace elements and mineral salts), medicinal properties (the content of B vitamins is greater than that of other cereals), ease of digestion and High degree of digestibility.

Effect of grain color on the quality of cereals

According to the intensity of the grain color, millet is divided into three types: the first type - with white and cream color, the second - red millet (all shades of this scale to dark brown), the third - with yellow color. Millet cultivated in the Russian Federation Orlovsky dwarf and Vsepodolyansk-59 are classified as the first type; Standard, Gorlinka, Barnaul-80, Orenburg-9, Saratov-6, Saratov-3, Omsk-10, Lipetsk-to the second, and Kinelskoy-92, Belgorod-1, Kharkov-8 and Kharkov-57 to the third.

The color of the grain depends on the presence or absence of anthocyanins (colorants). The core (millet) has a brighter color (dense yellow), provided the intense color of the grain, respectively, higher both consumer qualities and price.

Feed value

Millet is an indispensable part of the feed ration in livestock and poultry farming.

Unprocessed millet grain is used as a feed for birds: hens increase egg-laying, shell strength increases, and for chickens millet porridge and grains are necessary food. Flour from millet in a mixture with food additives fatten geese and pigs. Waste from the production of millet is used for the preparation of mixed fodders and as a concentrated animal feed.

Straw straw is much more valuable as roughage than straw from other cereals, since after harvesting it remains green and with a large number of leaves.

Fresh millet (greens) is an excellent food for cattle and sheep, so it is often sown in pastures.

Any grain feed for birds is made on the basis of millet. Recently there has been a practice of distilling millet for greenery in limited quantities (containers, roll mats) for both ornamental and domestic birds.

Formation of prices for millet in Russia

Due to the high capital intensity of storage facilities associated with both biological characteristics (grain is very shallow, ventilation or cooling is required), and with dependence on weather conditions, the fodder millet is more often offered for sale. The price of grain delivered depends on the quality: the closer to the requirements of the standard, the higher it is. The existing supply requirements for processing on cereals are quite stringent and not all agro-firms (even large ones) can provide them. Millet for export by domestic agricultural producers is almost not supplied. The main imports come from Turkey and Mongolia - countries that produce quality millet.