How The Heck Do I Manage Milo?
7 Aug 237 min 47 sec

It's drought-tolerant nature and ability to withstand harsh conditions makes Milo a good choice for farmers looking for a different crop with high yield potential. It is also not the preferred food for the local deer population -- a big reason Temple chose to plant it this season. Temple talks with Robb Dedman about managing milo in Maryland.

00:00 Are you gonna start or you want me To start? No, it's just x i, so you gotta Start. Okay. 00:04 This one time did you have to start? I mean, Well, you wanna quit talking so, well, I mean, uh, just it, I didn't know 00:10 We starting This is team, it's not about Hi. And I know the, you're all about you. Alright, let's be serious. 00:17 So we got something different up here. I've asked these guys come up here and they took, they're taking a look at, um, this is sorghum. This is no-till sorghum behind our weeded crop. Um, 00:26 I don't know how to fertilize it. Um, I know that it, we fur, we're gonna fertilize it similar to corn. So I'm gonna, 00:32 I'm gonna make a streamer pass and I'm gonna, I'm gonna put some UltraCharge in it. I don't know how to fertilize this crop. I don't know what the, the crop requirements are at any stages. 00:42 I don't even know any of the stages. I'm like completely oblivious. I know that this is a crop that, um, 00:48 I found a market for it and this is the, this area that we're standing in has got tremendous deer damage and we cannot grow any other crop down here right now. So this is an option for us. 01:00 So now that I got a market, I have an option and I'm gonna try to grow this crop, We can talk about the deer damage, you know, driving in here, we just, 01:07 we saw tons of deer and I mean there, there is no deer damage here. So that, that's a, that was a great, great idea. You had, malow is a, 01:15 is a different crop for this area, you know, for, especially for, for, for yours. 01:21 Milo is is typically a little bit lower input type crop, right? It doesn't require the, um, 01:29 the heavy amounts of nutrition that we are accustomed to in corn and, and, and other crops like that because, you know, it's, it's already, 01:37 it's a very efficient user, uh, of, of phosphorus for one. You know, um, it, it works well. Ize a fungi, so, I mean it's, 01:47 it's already izing has a big deep root system, so it's going deep. It's, it's getting nutrients that, 01:53 So we've seen, we're not normally, we've seen, you know, putting on, you know, when we, when we sidedress corn, you know, we'll use a streamer bar, 02:02 which that's something new for me this year. Yeah. We, we'd come out and we'd dribble nor normally like guys would dribble nitrogen on this. Right now this is 15 inch rows, 02:09 so it's a little hard to dribble on 15 inch row. I'd be splashing the plant anyway. So I figure well why not stream it? So is, you know, one thing I gotta definitely do, 02:21 I've gotta buffer the salt as much as possible. Absolutely. So we're gonna use, I'm gonna use Seacat 'cause that's what I'm used to and I'm gonna use, uh, 02:27 sugar in there because that's what I'm used to using. I used it on corn. I knew it worked well. It buffered a lot of the load. But my, my question is, 02:35 is like, am I gonna get the results out of Milo with Nutri charge getting phosphorus in the plant that I've gotten with corn and soybeans? You 02:44 Know that, that's a good question. Temple It, like I said, you know, it, it does have a deep root. So it's, it's got a a, a fairly good root system. 02:52 It's already gonna be pulling a lot of phosphorus up out of this ground and it's gonna be a relatively new crop for us to look at. It's gonna be a challenge, 02:59 you know, can, can we influence this crop as much as we're able to influence a lot of other crops? Yeah. I believe we're gonna get a pretty big influence. And, and, 03:07 and you know, that's something that we look for in, in Milo is what is, what can we do to make a difference. You know, sometimes it's, 03:14 it's hard to move that needle in, in Milo, but I think We're gonna keep that. I'm completely lost because I'm used to looking at previous years of data 03:23 off of, you know, corn or soybeans, right. Or wheat, you know. And uh, you know, we spoonfeed our crops, everything. You know, 03:29 one of the things that we did on our wheat crop this year is we spoon fed. You know, I, I had a, 03:34 did a video on this other day of how we spoon fed our fertility. And every one of those passes, you know, we put neutral charge in there, 03:40 we put seacat in there, we put sugar in there and we did them all for, for a reason. A 03:44 Reason. But I also know because of years and previous data, you know, with putting the, the micros on it, the things that I was doing, 03:52 I knew what I was doing because I knew my deficiency on my soil. I have absolutely no idea 03:58 What So what is your plan? I mean, what, what are you planning on as far as how many units of nitrogen do you think you proud 04:04 Of? Well, when I talk to the Milo company, you know, the, the, you know, the, the breeders of it, 04:08 they're telling me that I need to plan on 1.25 pounds for every bushel that I wanna produce. And, and I, 04:15 So I'm not, I'm typically used to that. I'm bushel milo. Yeah, right. I mean, So I'm not typically used to that. I want to be a lot lower than that. 04:24 So I want to, I wanna stabilize my fertility, I want to do that. I want go over it with a bunch of micro blends. 04:30 I don't know what this needs or what requirement. Right? So I'm, I'm, I'm pretty lost. Um, 04:35 and I know that I can't take a tissue sample and chase that either. 'cause that's a, you know, that's a lost cause. So I, to be honest with you, 04:42 I'm gonna treat it just like I would corn. Now I didn't get to put, you know, tube or two or in furrow on this because that's not something that we would 04:49 normally do. So I'm gonna stream it and I'm gonna make a fairly heavy pass of a, uh, of a stream fertility on it. It's gonna be just, and then some, 04:59 some p i I've already got K on this. I know that my base saturations are really high on this farm, right? So I'm good with that. I just don't know about the rest. 05:09 So to go back to the tissue sample, you know, you said I don't wanna chase a tissue sampling and I don't disagree with that, but I think you can use a tissue sample here as a 05:19 check. It's not something you're gonna chase. Use the tissue sample as the backside check versus the front side roadmap here. Yeah. You know, did I change this? You know, I, 05:32 I'll look at this and, and, and you know, we say, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna stream some nitrogen and we're gonna stream a little Micra and we're 05:38 gonna put some seacat or some seacat and some sugar in there. Definitely think the seacat and sugar's an important part of this, 05:43 this this program. You know, we know Milo is already at, at a young, as a young plant, as a delicate plant. It's, it's very, um, 05:52 we can, we can't use the chemistries on it that we use on other, on other crops because it, it just, it can't metabolize it. Right. So, you know, 05:59 you, you talk about you're gonna stream it. I thought that was a, a pretty neat idea Johnny Rell came up with and, 06:05 and I think that program worked well for you. I don't think you saw much burn at all on the corn. No, it was great. We looked at the corn yesterday. 06:10 Corn's much more rigid than us. Milo is, I'm, I'm a little concerned that you may see a little tissue burn on this. Maybe we won't. Maybe it won't. 06:18 That's why I think the seacat and sugar's gonna be a great buffer. You know? Definitely. I think I'd hit this with a little bit of zinc. Uh, 06:25 the zinc would be in my pack. Um, get your manganese out here like you want do, and uh, well, I'm gonna, I'm fixing 06:31 To make, I'm fixing, are Gonna make two hydrogen. Yeah. I'm gonna split the neuron, but I think on my, on my next pass, I'm not gonna stream it. 06:38 I'm gonna spread dry and then I'm probably gonna treat the, with the urea with something. Um, well, 06:44 That'd be a great place to treat it with ion eyes. Yeah. So that's what I was thinking. I was probably treated with ion eyes and then that way it's, I I'm not, 06:52 I'm not volatile. You know, I'm, I'm holding it up, but I'm gonna, my plan is right now is I'm getting ready to make a herbicide pass us on it, 06:59 right. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna stream it first and I'm gonna let it come out of it a little bit. Then I'm gonna make a herbicide, pass us on it, 07:04 try to kill a little bit of grass. It's little bit of wheat that's coming in it. Right. Um, I'm gonna make that us, but in that, 07:09 I'm gonna treat it just like I would on my V four, V five, V six corn. And I'm gonna use the same type of micro packs on it there. 07:16 So that's what I'm Absolutely, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna treat it like corn. 'cause I don't know how to grow milo. 07:21 Well, so you're, you're a pretty good corn farmer and I'm not gonna take that from you. Um, be careful. Don't lay it down. Don't really, don't put it on the ground. I, 07:33 I think you can over, you can, we can o very easily. I think you can over-manage a milo. So, So I'm screwed. 07:39 You're screwed. Be back to you soon.

Growers In This Video

See All Growers