A quarter-century ago, more than 2 million acres of milo were harvested in Nebraska. This year, early reports show there will be only 390,000 planted acres — a 29 percent dip just since last year. The drop raises a big question: How could drought-hardy milo be so dominated by corn and soybeans through such a serious dry spell?

BY ART HOVEY | Lincoln Journal Star

MILFORD — Larry Dedic and his trusty magnifying glass are back from the milo field with good news.

Dedic's hands-and-knees scouting trips between rows suggest those ornery, pinpoint-sized chinch bugs aren't there in the numbers that would make them a significant threat to tender young plants this year.

Of course, those who've looked at milo's fading presence in grain-growing settings in Nebraska might suggest the bugs just got tired of the long trips between fields.

After all, more than 2 million acres of milo were harvested as recently as 1980. Preliminary reports this year show 390,000 planted acres.

That's a drop of about 80 percent in 25 years and 29 percent just since last year for the crop, which also is commonly called grain sorghum.

And the precipitous decline raises a larger question: How could drought-hardy milo be so dominated by thirstier corn and soybeans through a dry spell serious enough to bring on major irrigation regulation from the state level?

"I still like to spread my bets," the 61-year-old Dedic said Monday. "I like to break the weed and insect cycle. And I feel I do that better with more than two crops."

But his planting choices on unirrigated ground between Milford and Pleasant Dale definitely run counter to a darker milo trend that may not have bottomed out yet.

Acreage has slipped again for three consecutive years for the grain, which is used as poultry and livestock feed in the United States and overseas, as well as for flour and other human purposes.

Barb Kliment, executive director of the Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board in Lincoln, said the agency, which depends on checkoff income from the sale of the crop, is also a victim of a shrinking acreage base.

"There's so many features of grain sorghum that are very positive from the standpoint that it's a very water-efficient crop and more environmentally friendly," Kliment said. "Unfortunately, we're kind of caught in this critical mass thing."

Not very many acres means not very much attention from the public and private researchers who have delivered insect and disease resistance and other types of horticultural progress in corn and bean research plots.

That's not the only factor in milo's fading popularity.

The acres withdrawn into the Conservation Reserve Program and the federal government's other land-idling categories have tended to be the more marginal acres where milo was grown.

Better crop insurance policies make farmers more willing to risk growing corn or beans even in drought cycles.

When rainfall is adequate, corn and beans tend to produce more income.

The list goes on.

Yet for milo, down doesn't necessarily mean out.

Far to the west of Lincoln in the Republican River Valley, Stamford farmer Richard Bose sees a future in areas where irrigation is being curtailed by falling water levels and regulation.

"The tougher they hang on the water allotment thing," Bose said, "people are going to have to make some choices to live with it."

As an enthusiastic grower of milo, Bose hasn't forgotten an oldtimer's reply when a visitor to Nebraska asked about recent rainfall.

"Remember that time it rained for 40 days and 40 nights," the oldtimer supposedly said. "Well, we got a quarter of an inch that time."

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.