tradition of cooking millet porridge is rooted in the deep past.Millet - an ancient herb, came to Russia from China or Mongolia.Polished grain plant is wheat.
main processing area
Today we know up to 500 species of millet.Crop areas traditionally occupied residents with arid and semi-arid climate.In Asia (China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) account for more than 55% of world production of millet.In African countries (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal) - up to 25%.The former Soviet Union is mainly millet is grown in the steppe regions of Ukraine and Kazakhstan as food grains, and in Belarus - as a fodder.
Millet
in Russia on the territory of the Russian Federation there are 8 kinds of plants and cultivated only 2 of them: ordinary millet - Panicum muliaceum L. (grain) and capitate - Setaria italica L (green mass for animal feed).
Depending on the discipline of inflorescences ordinary millet has 5 subspecies: the oval and com (cultivated as a heat-loving and drought-resistant), and spreading branchy (less heat-loving, can grow even in the Non-Black Earth) and compressed (drooping).
Setar (Italian, Borovoye millet) is cultivated in the Far East.It has two subspecies - millet and panic.
main crops of millet ordinary concentrated in West Siberia, Bashkiria, in the Central Black Earth, the fertile lands of the North Caucasus.Areas sown maturing varieties of millet, are constantly increasing in the Non-Black Earth and Eastern Siberia.
Biological features
Millet - is an annual, self-pollinating, photophilous plant.Vegetation is short - two to four months.When planting in wide gives seven hollow stems, usually tillering - 2-3 stalk.
basic crops (rye, wheat, barley, oats) have narrower leaves on the stem, as requested.Inflorescence - panicle of different species from a spreading to the lump.
roots can penetrate to a depth of half-meter, but mostly ate mass located in a layer up to 40 centimeters.
growth after germination is slow (2-3 weeks), for this reason, the plant resists bad growing weeds.Millet - a plant, demanding to stock water in the upper layer of the soil: the more moisture, the more quickly develop nodal roots.Under adverse conditions can cause lodging of a blow and breakage of the roots.Tillering intensity depends on the supply of moisture, nutrient availability, favorable planting dates (15 May), the required seeding depth (5 cm), the minimum weed.
Farming
Millet is a good belay at the plant when other crops (both winter and spring) did not germinate or died.This is due to the late planting dates - from mid-May to June.The seeds begin to germinate in unison only at sufficiently high temperatures - 14 degrees, the temperature is considered to be the best of 18 degrees.
Millet - is demanding to the soil structure the plant: the highest yield observed on the structural chernozem and chestnut soils (up to 50 tons per hectare).Cultivated land with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction with a sufficient supply of moisture can produce consistently high yields.
Due to the fact that the weed infestation leads to lower yields, you should carefully prepare the soil for planting: snegouderzhanie, harrowing early (when it is time to germinate weeds first), up to three subsequent cultivations with high contamination.
To obtain stable yields of spring requires fertilizer - calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen.You do not need to, if the precursors of millet were potatoes or beets: soil fertility remains high.Good harvests of millet yields after winter crops.In monoculture die because of the defeat fungal diseases.
main pests - thrips, midges bread, cicadas, stem borer.
Yields of millet in Russia leaves much to be desired: from 8 to 12 tons per hectare, while in the Soviet period in Kazakhstan known nationwide Chaganak Bercy in 1941 received the harvest nearly 156 quintals per hectare, and in 1943 - 201.
Food significance
The weight of millet to feed passed the test of time: millet in Russia is second only to the Greek.
cereals is processed grains.Millet vacated only on rough shell flower called Dranets.After grinding millet obtained.Crushed - a byproduct of polishing.And fashionable flakes - the result of thermal and mechanical processing of millet.
popularity due to nutritional millet (up to 13% protein, about 81% starch, 3.8% fat), balanced flavor (trace elements and mineral salts) medicinal properties (the content of B vitamins more than other cereals), easilyrazvarivaemosti and high digestibility.
Color Effect grain quality cereals
The intensity of color grain millet divided into three types: the first type - a white and cream color, the second - red millet (all shades of this range to dark brown), and the third - yellowcolor.Varieties cultivated in Russia Orel dwarf millet and Vsepodolyanskoe-59 assigned to the first type;Standard Gorlinka, Barnaul-80, 9-Orenburg, Saratov-6 3-Saratov, Omsk, 10, Lipetsk - the second and Kinelskoye-92, Belgorod-1, Kharkov, Kharkov, 8 and 57 - the third.
grain color depends on the presence or absence of anthocyanin (dyes).The kernel (wheat) has a bright color (thick yellow) with intensive color of grain, respectively, higher than both the consumer quality and price.
fodder value
Millet - is an essential part of the diet to livestock and poultry.
unpolished millet grain is used as food for birds in the chicken egg production increases, increasing the strength of the shell and chicken millet porridge and grain - the necessary power.Millet flour mixed with food additives and pigs fed geese.Waste from the production of wheat used for making animal feed and as a concentrated animal feed.
millet straw is much more valuable as a roughage than straw from other cereals, as after harvest remains green and with a lot of leaves.
Fresh millet (green) - an excellent food for cattle and sheep, so it is often sown pastures.
Any grain feed for the birds made on the basis of millet.In recent years, there is a practice of forcing millet on the greens in limited quantities (containers, roll mats) for decorative and home birds.
Pricing millet in Russia
Due to the high capital intensity of the storage associated with both the biological characteristics (very fine grain required ventilation or cooling), and the dependence on weather conditions, most often offered for sale fodder millet.Price supplied depends on the quality of the grain, the closer to the requirements of the standard, so it is above.The existing requirements for the supply of cereals processing rather tough and not all agricultural companies (even larger) can provide for them.Millet on the export of domestic agricultural producers hardly comes.The main imports are from Turkey and Mongolia - countries producing high-quality millet.
