Let's Talk About Milo

[MacAR]

As the title says, I need some info on planting milo. (See what I did there?) It's basically going to be a food plot, and only about 1/2 an acre or so. My plan is to burn the plot down with glyphosate and 2,4-D. Wait 7 days, then hit it with the disk and field cultivator, broadcast some fertilizer, and plant. I can either use my #10 drill or my 186 planter. Not sure which would be better for what I'm wanting. Thinking of following the planter with an application of atrazine and then hoping for enough rain to make it produce. Am I heading in the right direction, or throwing effort after foolishness?

Mac

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

If you’re going to hit it with the disk and field cultivator, you don’t need the Glyphosate and 2,4-D. I never liked drilling Milo because it was always hard to shut the drill down enough and we usually ended up getting too much on. If we did use a drill we would usually block every other row to cut the rate. A planter works much better in my opinion. It’s pretty hard to mess up a food plot though. 

[MacAR]

Only reason for the spray is to kill off some of the grass and weeds that have started. I'd like to have a clean seedbed to plant in; my old junk is picky when it comes to trash. I was leaning toward the planter, my thought was it would give me a better stand. Food plot or not, I want to raise the best crop I possibly can. 

Mac

[acem]

Grain Sorghum is often called Milo.  Sometimes Milo Maize.

If you want to burn down, use Paraquat.  Just be careful.  It has the skull and cross bones on it for a good reason.

Get concept treated seed.  Concept safens sorghum  seed to Dual.  Most all Milo is treated with concept but be sure. Spray Dual (or generic) as pre emergent herbicide.  Select a variety that is resistant to Sugar Cane Aphids.  They can be a severe problem in Arkansas.

Plant with your 186 planter.  I can loan you some plates if need be. 

After you get a stand, spray Atrazine and 24D before the milo reaches 12".

Apply P&K according to soil test.  Apply Nitrogen according to yield goals.

Arkansas Grain Sorghum Handbook.

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/mp-297.aspx

Arkansas Grain Sorghum Information (notice Axial Flow pic on page)

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/crops-commercial-horticulture/grain-sorghum/

Arkansas Herbicide recommendations.

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/mp-44.aspx

[highcotton]

Acem is spot on with everything- pay especially close attention to your variety selection. Sugarcane aphids can be devastating without treatment. Sivanto will add significant money to your production costs if you have to spray. 

[MacAR]

8 hours ago, acem said:

Grain Sorghum is often called Milo.  Sometimes Milo Maize.

If you want to burn down, use Paraquat.  Just be careful.  It has the skull and cross bones on it for a good reason.

Get concept treated seed.  Concept safens sorghum  seed to Dual.  Most all Milo is treated with concept but be sure. Spray Dual (or generic) as pre emergent herbicide.  Select a variety that is resistant to Sugar Cane Aphids.  They can be a severe problem in Arkansas.

Plant with your 186 planter.  I can loan you some plates if need be. 

After you get a stand, spray Atrazine and 24D before the milo reaches 12".

Apply P&K according to soil test.  Apply Nitrogen according to yield goals.

Arkansas Grain Sorghum Handbook.

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/mp-297.aspx

Arkansas Grain Sorghum Information (notice Axial Flow pic on page)

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/crops-commercial-horticulture/grain-sorghum/

Arkansas Herbicide recommendations.

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/mp-44.aspx

Thanks for the info Ace, I remembered that you grew a little milo. This little plot is more experiment than anything, but I want to do as good a job as I can. I appreciate the offer for the plates, but I happen to have a set that came with the planter. They're a very small seed, and my old #10 drill doesn't go down as far as it should, so I figured the planter would be the best option. I'll also give the paraquat a whirl; I'm not entirely sure I don't have some of that already as an all-purpose ditch spray. I'll have to check. If not, it'll be easy enough to get hold of. The atrazine and 2,4-D I have plenty of I know.. The seed I have has been in the freezer for a year or so now. I bought it last spring intending to plant a dove plot and never got it done, so I'm trying again this year. I'm not sure if it's treated or not, and have no idea what the variety is. Guess I'll have to pull it out and look at it also. 

Mac

[acem]

Without concept/dual, controlling grass is difficult. The only post emergence grass herbicide, that I'm aware of, is Facet.

Also. Don't plant milo in a field with Johnson grass. 

[MacAR]

Just now, acem said:

Without concept/dual, controlling grass is difficult. The only post emergence grass herbicide, that I'm aware of, is Facet.

Also. Don't plant milo in a field with Johnson grass. 

Happily I don't much Johnsongrass around me, but there are some patches on the neighbor's place just across the creek. Will have to look and see if I can use the Dual, my brain isn't working today so I can't remember what kind of milo I bought. Pretty sure it's some kind of foodplot seed, and I'm fairly sure it's treated, but that's about all. I'll dig it out tonight and see what it says on the tag. 

Mac

[acem]

If it's treated, the bag will have come with a label.   Either a tag or printed on the bag. It's required by law since the treatment is a chemical regulated by the EPA.

Facet is a good herbicide. Burndown and residual but the residual us weak when the ground drys out.

[highcotton]

5 minutes ago, acem said:

If it's treated, the bag will have come with a label.   Either a tag or printed on the bag. It's required by law since the treatment is a chemical regulated by the EPA.

Facet is a good herbicide. Burndown and residual but the residual us weak when the ground drys out.

Facet has a sorghum label Ace? I think possibly Corteva has sorghum with a grass herbicide resistant trait, possibly sold as Zest? The herbicide was of course renamed but I think it’s basically Assure II. 

[acem]

55 minutes ago, highcotton said:

Facet has a sorghum label Ace? I think possibly Corteva has sorghum with a grass herbicide resistant trait, possibly sold as Zest? The herbicide was of course renamed but I think it’s basically Assure II. 

I'm pretty sure it does or at least did.

I've used it before. Don't grow milo too often. Just for feed.

It probably wouldn't do as good in the dry country as it does here. It requires moisture to work.

[bcsmta]

Anyone have a milo/ sorghum drum for 4 row 400 cyclo for sale?

[MacAR]

You might try all states ag, they used to have a bunch of cyclo parts. Don't know if they still do though. 

Mac

[acem]

6 hours ago, bcsmta said:

Anyone have a milo/ sorghum drum for 4 row 400 cyclo for sale?

Does yours have the 6 row drum?

[bcsmta]

Yes Anyone have a milo/ sorghum drum for 4 row 400 cyclo for sale?

[bcsmta]

Yes

[acem]

On 4/25/2025 at 8:53 AM, MacAR said:

Thanks for the info Ace, I remembered that you grew a little milo. This little plot is more experiment than anything, but I want to do as good a job as I can. I appreciate the offer for the plates, but I happen to have a set that came with the planter. They're a very small seed, and my old #10 drill doesn't go down as far as it should, so I figured the planter would be the best option. I'll also give the paraquat a whirl; I'm not entirely sure I don't have some of that already as an all-purpose ditch spray. I'll have to check. If not, it'll be easy enough to get hold of. The atrazine and 2,4-D I have plenty of I know.. The seed I have has been in the freezer for a year or so now. I bought it last spring intending to plant a dove plot and never got it done, so I'm trying again this year. I'm not sure if it's treated or not, and have no idea what the variety is. Guess I'll have to pull it out and look at it also. 

Mac

I was just looking at my sorghum plates and noticed I have several for different sizes of seed, etc.  These use filler plates.

Which plates do you have and what's your seed size (#/lb)?

 

[MacAR]

8 hours ago, acem said:

I was just looking at my sorghum plates and noticed I have several for different sizes of seed, etc.  These use filler plates.

Which plates do you have and what's your seed size (#/lb)?

 

I'll have to check, but they're small. My plates will almost fit 2 seeds per cell. May need smaller ones!

[MacAR]

17 hours ago, acem said:

I was just looking at my sorghum plates and noticed I have several for different sizes of seed, etc.  These use filler plates.

Which plates do you have and what's your seed size (#/lb)?

 

Looking up the variety online, everything I'm seeing is showing 14k - 16k seeds per pound. My milo plate is a 24 cell plate, but I can't quite read the number on it. When I tried the seeds, sometimes it would drop a single seed, and sometimes it would drop a double or triple. Think I'm ok? 

[acem]

It'll probably work but singulation is ideal.  I doubt you are shooting for top yields.

Do they use filler rings?

How do you plan to harvest your milo?  It'd be a long drive taking my combine up to your place.  Not sure how it would work driving a combine through those switchback curves where you can read the tags on your trailer!

[MacAR]

Just now, acem said:

It'll probably work but singulation is ideal.  I doubt you are shooting for top yields.

Do they use filler rings?

How do you plan to harvest your milo?  It'd be a long drive taking my combine up to your place.  Not sure how it would work driving a combine through those switchback curves where you can read the tags on your trailer!

No, no filler rings. Not too concerned about yield either. My original plan was for a food plot/ experiment plot just to see how it'd do. Planned on letting the doves and deer work it over this fall and then harvest them; sorta like marketing corn through hogs! I doubt the little plot would be worth hauling a combine up here; it's only a fuzz under an acre so it won't be much. Thought about cutting some heads by hand and tossing them in a big barrel and then feeding the whole heads to the chickens. Me and the Mrs could probably harvest the whole field in a couple days like that, but I've got to get it planted first. And right now, it's so wet I can't even get on it to burn it down let alone work it. So it may be middle of the month before anything happens. I worry about water, but it's right next to a healthy year-round creek and part of it stays wet even when we haven't had rain in quite some time. So I might be ok on the moisture. 

[Lazy WP]

1 hour ago, MacAR said:

No, no filler rings. Not too concerned about yield either. My original plan was for a food plot/ experiment plot just to see how it'd do. Planned on letting the doves and deer work it over this fall and then harvest them; sorta like marketing corn through hogs! I doubt the little plot would be worth hauling a combine up here; it's only a fuzz under an acre so it won't be much. Thought about cutting some heads by hand and tossing them in a big barrel and then feeding the whole heads to the chickens. Me and the Mrs could probably harvest the whole field in a couple days like that, but I've got to get it planted first. And right now, it's so wet I can't even get on it to burn it down let alone work it. So it may be middle of the month before anything happens. I worry about water, but it's right next to a healthy year-round creek and part of it stays wet even when we haven't had rain in quite some time. So I might be ok on the moisture. 

2 things I see wrong with your plan. Milo is itchy. By the time you harvest an acre, you will think poison ivy is a salve. It doesn’t bother me, but most people hate it. 
Other thing is Milo doesn’t like its feet wet. Its very drought tolerant but not flood tolerant. 

[MacAR]

Hmm, didn't know that! That being the case, me and the wife may not harvest it then. Just let the critters take care of it. The ground is fairly sandy loam, but there are spots that stay wet so it might not work out. May try it there this year and then move it next year if it stands poor. Like I said, it's a big experiment just for fun!

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

There used to be a lot of Milo raised in river bottoms that flooded on a regular basis here. It will take flood water a lot better than corn or beans, which have almost no tolerance for it at all. There is not a good market for it here anymore, so there’s not a lot of it raised anymore. I have combined flooded Milo lots of times with the heads full of mud. Milo dust is not nearly as bad to me as a face full of soybean dust, but that’s different for everybody. 

[acem]

Milo does not like flooding but is more tolerant to everything than corn...

Milo and sunflowers are drought tolerant.