(Continued from Page 16)
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
According to Gary Woyak, one of Millet Supply LLC’s
partners and also owner of Taterland Farms, a large
Plainfield, WI potato farming operation, “We grow
Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica), one of the most important
cultivated millet species in a variety of Honey & Gold,
Sunshine and Golden Starburst.“
Gary continues, “Because the millet season coincides
with the potato season, it can get a little hectic having
millet and potato trucks and equipment going down
the same roads at the same time. Millet is normally
planted May 1-15 and harvested in mid-September.”
The team plants a total of 300 acres with 30-inch rows
and 3” spacing between plants, averaging 75,000 seeds
per acre. Millet seeds are about the size of a pinhead.
In other countries, harvesting is done entirely by hand.
Gary’s operation harvests with specially modified
combines, which cutoff and gather the top of the
stalk and the sprays, fairly similar to combining corn.
The sprays are deposited into specially-customized
peanut wagons (so called because they were originally
used for peanut harvesting). Their perforated floors
allow attached dryers to dry the sprays as they are
loaded into the wagons and driven to holding areas.
(Continued on Page 18)
Top: Unprocessed millet is stored outside in the elements. Middle: Gary uses
his John Deere end loader to transfer a mound of millet to the processing plant
in Plainfield. Bottom: Crates of graded millet stored at the processing plant.
Page 17
Neighbors-March 2011