I know this is the deer forum but thought some of you greenthumbs could help me anyhow. I'm putting about 5 acres of proso millet in the ground Memorial Day weekend. I have all of my burndown, pre and post emerge herbicides lined up and ready to go. My question, having never planted millet before, is about the timing of manipulating it. After it matures, will it dry out? Should I spray with Gly? Should I bushhog? Should I burn? If bushhogging it, do I do that while it's still green? As you can see, I'm a novice at this. It should mature around 8/15 and our opener will be 9/6, giving me about a 20 day window to do what I want with it.

I'm all ears to you guys that have done this in the past and look forward to the responses. If you have pictures of the process I'd love to see them as well.

I have always been told to burn it. 75-100 days to mature after germination. You may want to plant half the field, the first of May, and then the other half Memorial Day to make sure some of it is mature several weeks before opening day. I've always planted browntop millet.

Will it dry up enough to burn by then or will I need to spray first?

We always plant our field in early May with Browntop millet. It typically matures around 75 days. We bush hog it the 2nd weekend in August and spray roundup the same day we bush hog it. This kills all of the weeds as the millet will already be brown by this time frame. This will leave everything in the field very short making it easier to find down birds. We disk a few strips into dirt and spread wheat (about 200lbs/acre) 1 week before the shoot. This has made for a very good shoot every year. I have heard burning is very good for a dove field but we have had trouble getting the field to burn to any degree plus some of the spots I got to burn seemed to burn up the seeds that were still attached to the stalk. I am sure there are other ways but this has always worked for us.

Be careful with your pre herbicides.

Didnt do pre em and had a great stand. We had the luxury of it being in a hay field and he cut it once mature, let it dry for a couple of weeks and then went thru it with a hay rake. Then burned it. They hammered it for several weeks which worked out great for us

Planted an acre of sunflowers also which is what they preferred between the two as a fyi

Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming. Steiner, good info on maturity times and methods of cutting/burning. I'm not an Internet GW, but the way I interpret the law, you might not be legal. Personally I don't care, just would hate to see you get ticketed if you thought you were in the right. If your disked strips weren't originally in millet you would be fine, but only seeding at a lesser rate (maybe 150/acre?). Just a heads up, and even so, I might be in the wrong on my interpretation.

I don't think the deer will let the sunflowers make, but I plan on giving a few strips a try.

Looking forward to getting things going in the next month or so.

Gotta be careful with the way you prepare the field.We got busted on a pay hunt a couple years ago I believe the baiting ticket was $50? It looked fine to me but there was too much wheat or something like that. Best dove shoot I've ever been on i would have paid the extra 50 up front

3FF,

Your right. I should have been more specific about our strips. We plant our dove field in a 19 acre pasture. We have found that we only need about 5 acres of millet planted in 6 strips that are about 20 to 30 yards wide. This leaves strips about 75 yards between them that we don't plant in millet. This is where we disk the strips to put the wheat out.

You might be correct on the amount of wheat that is allowed to be spread. It is either 150 lbs or 200 lbs to the acre but I have it written in my notes which I don't have access to right now. I was also told you had to be careful with your technique on spreading the wheat. I was told the GW will have a certain size ring. He will just throw the ring onto the field and if more than x amount of seeds are in the ring, you are in trouble. We use a broadcast spreader and always make sure we are at the correct speed before we open the hopper.

Promise I wasn't trying to call you out, just hated to see you think you were in the right and have a problem if not. Sounds like you have it going on and prepare a jam-up, legal field. Best of luck to you this year!

Yea, it has to be broadcasted, and i think it is 200lbs/acre. It's such a stupid law. They tell you that you can do it, but if you have a couple too many seeds in the ring, your getting a ticket. Like those extra seeds, made a difference. You can't kill but 15 birds, why do they care if you do it in 15 minutes or 4 hours? Enforce the limit law, and do away with the baiting, and having your gun plugged. YOU CAN'T KILL BUT 15! Enforce that law, and forget about the others.

Couldn't agree more.

It is 200 lbs per acre according to the DNR!

But then they would have less things they could write you a ticket for duh.

Had no idea it was that high. Where we are in Miss it's 90lbs/acre. Crazy difference in amounts.

They could drop the limit to 10 and I'd be fine! I can't carry over a case of shells into the field with me so no chance of being over the limit!

IMO your planting a little too early. I did the same 2 years ago but waited till Mid June last year with much better results. I bush hog mine then run across it with my finish mower, then burn it. They killed it after we burned it. Doves really like going down on fresh dirt and they can find the seeds much easier. This will be my 3rd year to plant my field and we had a bloodletting on it opening day last year. It is about time to plant sunflowers however. I plan to do this on the weekend hopefully. If they dry out early it starts bringing in birds mid summer.

Just got mine sprayed, when it dies I will burn off the grass and drill it.

I am new to hunting in Shelby county. Is the WMA any good?

Dove proso millet, or white millet is probably the best thing I have ever seen to pull in doves. You are likely to have an AWESOME shoot. I've planted it and brown top. It's much better than brown top. It makes a ton of seed.