Mammoth Millet

What We Do

Mammoth White Millet and Minotaur Red Millet

Following the remarkable success of Mammoth millet over the years, Soya UK will be placing further acreage on full buy-back contract for Mammoth millet next Spring.

We will also be expanding the area of our Red Millet – Minotaur.

In 2004 we embarked on a series of trials with 12 growers taking part in commercial trials of a new variety of white millet called “Mammoth Millet”.

Mammoth millet performed very well and exceeded our highest expectations, and so began our journey with the Millet crop. Over the intervening 20 years, we have become by far the largest producer of millet in the UK, and supply up to 25% of the national tonnage.

Mammoth millet is a very productive, short-season crop and even in the cold, wet seasons of 2007, 2012 and 2019, the crop was harvested within an acceptable time frame. After 20 years of success, we have concluded that the crop is here to stay. Once again, we are placing contract acreage for next spring.

Prices remain healthy for 2025 due to the ongoing war in Ukraine

Ukrainian millet traditionally supplied around 70% of the UK’s requirement which is principally used in the bird seed trade. The war in Ukraine has prevented the normal shipment of millet, and has meant that there is substantial market demand for millet, as traders have switched to using UK-grown millet where they can find it.

The situation has also created a major shift in the value of the crop. Historically, Millet for the bird seed trade has traded at a value around £80 to £100 over the value of feed wheat. As of spring 2025, we are seeing values ex-farm of £325 per tonne. This is roughly £150 over feed wheat, and this has transformed the economics of the crop. You can download a gross margin here.

Millet

Millet contract growers wanted

This situation means that we are seeking a substantial increase in our contract acreage.

Mammoth millet is the highest yielding, early harvesting variety of white millet and Minotaur is the highest yielding, early harvesting variety of red millet.
Good standing ability.
Cheap and easy to grow.
No significant pests or disease.
Very good break crop.
High value niche market.
130 - 135 day crop for dry combining.
Markets prefer UK-grown crop.
Very attractive gross margin.

Agronomy

Our experience over a number of years with this crop, has stood us in good stead.

We now have a well-developed agronomy model which is very simple and highly effective using familiar chemistry. Disease is not a significant issue with millet, and normally no fungicides are used.

Seed yields are in the range of 1.00 -1.85 tonnes per acre (2.5 to 4.5 tonnes per Ha), with typical yields of a good crop at 1.5 tonnes/acre.

Both Mammoth and Minotaur are exclusive to Soya UK, and are produced under full buy-back contracts.

Millet video

The perfect solution for failed crops of rape

OSR Growers know the frustration and difficulty of realising late in the spring, that a crop of OSR isn’t going to be viable. This creates the dilemma of what to do – especially if the ground has been sprayed with autumn herbicides such as Kerb.

Millet is not sown until early May, and can be direct drilled or sown after failed rape with minimal cultivations. Furthermore, the Millet now offers a gross margin which is as good or better than OSR anyway – thus putting things back on track.

Backgrass control without the chemicals

Because Mammoth and Minotaur Millet is late sown and very competitive, it out-competes Blackgrass very effectively. Many growers on heavy land will grow Millet specifically to suppress Blackgrass without using precious chemistry which needs to be used sparingly to avoid resistance.

Millet can also be grown for Anaerobic Digestion

This is a harvest report from a grower in Kent who grew Mammoth for anaerobic digestion:

“We planted the crop on the 15^th May. The crop received 250 kgs/ha 20.10.10 and 50 kgs/ha urea all on the seed bed. We did one weedkiller of Bromoxynil around about 6 leaf. We harvested on 15^th September. Yield was 10t/ac fresh weight and as you can see from the analysis with a dry matter of 32% a gas yield of approx 170 m3/t.

We feel we could have done better yield wise with a few tweaks on the growing front, however, harvesting was very easy and given the amount of rain we had over the summer the crop was standing well. All in all, we are encouraged by the this first time and will try some more next year.”