Plant · P-689

Barnyard Millet

Echinochloa crus-galli

Barnyard millet is a fast-growing wet-ground grass, the opposite of the other millets in what it asks for - it wants moist to flooded soil and cannot grow in shade. The small grain has fed people for around ten thousand years, roasted, boiled or milled into flour, and it doubles as strong livestock feed and a favorite of foraging birds. It grows so readily on disturbed, even saline ground that it is treated as one of the world's worst rice-paddy weeds in some countries and carries a noxious-weed listing in others, so it is worth checking local rules before sowing it on purpose. Heavily fertilised or drought-stressed stands can build up nitrate to levels toxic to grazing stock, so livestock should not be turned onto a lush or stressed field.