Perennial Grass Options for Poultry Forage Lawn in the Southeast?

[HelloooNurse]

Anyone here from the Southeast? What perennial grass do you use for poultry forage lawns in your area?


I'm in the Coastal Plains area of North Carolina (zone 8a) trying to plant foraging lawn for chickens (and eventually geese/ducks).

The plot is mostly part-sun/filtered shade under 3 old loblolly pines. There is deeper shade on the back edge under bay magnolia and black gum trees where soil gets marshy.

I've more or less decided on some combination of Dutch white clover and alfalfa with some kind of perennial grass.

Question is, what kind of perennial forage grass will actually grow here?

It's too shady for bermudagrass to grow in that spot.
I've learned that tall fescue isn't a great option (for geese especially).
I had considered orchard grass, but I have no experience with it. I'm not sure how well it would do in wet conditions or if it would grow dense enough to crowd out noxious weeds.

It's a tough spot to cover with the shade and wet soil conditions for sure.

Anything suggestions I can look into further?

 

[Perris]

@Mother of Chaos might be able to help you with that one...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Call your county extension office and chart with them. They should know your local conditions and climate.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Anyone here from the Southeast? What perennial grass do you use for poultry forage lawns in your area?


I'm in the Coastal Plains area of North Carolina (zone 8a) trying to plant foraging lawn for chickens (and eventually geese/ducks).

The plot is mostly part-sun/filtered shade under 3 old loblolly pines. There is deeper shade on the back edge under bay magnolia and black gum trees where soil gets marshy.

I've more or less decided on some combination of Dutch white clover and alfalfa with some kind of perennial grass.

Question is, what kind of perennial forage grass will actually grow here?

It's too shady for bermudagrass to grow in that spot.
I've learned that tall fescue isn't a great option (for geese especially).
I had considered orchard grass, but I have no experience with it. I'm not sure how well it would do in wet conditions or if it would grow dense enough to crowd out noxious weeds.

It's a tough spot to cover with the shade and wet soil conditions for sure.

Anything suggestions I can look into further?

I agree with @Ridgerunner about calling your extension office. The Master Gardeners might have info on forage grasses, but an even more likely Extension person would be the small farms advisor, or poultry advisor, something along those lines. They probably work with regenerative ag, pasture rotation, organic farmers, etc. and are familiar with the ins and outs of free-ranging poultry and forage crops in general.

FWIW, I just planted a small area that had been mowed to the ground by the girls on Friday with their Over-Wintering ground cover mix that includes perennial ryegrass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch. If they don't eat it all over the winter, you let it bloom in the spring, and then chop and drop before it goes to seed (cut it down right above soil line, and let it lie on the ground to rot into the soil.) If you are into shaggy, meadow-like fields, this would work. If you want something a bit more tailored, that would probably be your question for Extension Master Gardeners.

Here's the link to this particular mix https://sowtrueseed.com/collections/cover-crops/products/over-wintering-mix and here's the link to their various cover crops, both individual and mixes. All the ones that I've checked out* are safe for poultry (per the ingredients list.) https://sowtrueseed.com/collections...sQGTKgilUPwbjqV0hHBzwWXuEU7xz9hrcTijSYQQBr7dm

*Note: "all the ones that I've checked out" doesn't mean that I've checked them all out. Just the ones I'm interested in. Read the ingredients list.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Note to self. Respond tonight. Hey @U_Stormcrow - paging yourself to the courtesy phone.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Apart from talking to your extension office as others recommended above (and I am going to recommend it too), from experience ( I am also Zone 8a, FL Panhandle / Wiregrass region) I can tell you that fescue toxicity is a bit overblown. Clovers are excellent choices - I planted several varieties - a crimson, a yellow, and a white - they bloom at different times, and prefer different areas. I'm using this Hancock's Pensacola Bahia Fall & Winter Grass Seed Mix right now with good result, overseeding with Hancock's Fall & Winter Food Plot Seed Mix. Past plantings of the three clovers (from Nature's Seed), also tried teff, a teff/sudangrass hybrid, buckwheat, sunhemp, ryes (annual, perennial, and cereal), mustards, rape seed (canola), red sorrel, sorghum, methi (fenugreek), amaranth and a seven seed no till green cover crop (most did not do well - I have individual plants pop up from time to time, but nothing really established. As well as several 50# bags of equine or pasture grass mixes (from TSC) which yes, have a bunch of fescue. Oh, and some prairie grasses - little bluestem does remarkably well for me. So does Scribner's Panic grass.

Now, that's my pasture. Full, brutal, sun. My shaded areas (I've underbrushed a few acres of upland pine and hardwoods - a thin layer of acidic, nutrient poor sands on top of hard packed clay. Orchard grass and scribner's panic grass are sparse in there, but they are the first grasses to start spreading into that area naturally. I suspect both will do well for you. You might also try a test of some timothy grass. I'm too hot for it in summer, but it may do well for you.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I agree with @Ridgerunner about calling your extension office. The Master Gardeners might have info on forage grasses, but an even more likely Extension person would be the small farms advisor, or poultry advisor, something along those lines. They probably work with regenerative ag, pasture rotation, organic farmers, etc. and are familiar with the ins and outs of free-ranging poultry and forage crops in general.

FWIW, I just planted a small area that had been mowed to the ground by the girls on Friday with their Over-Wintering ground cover mix that includes perennial ryegrass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch. If they don't eat it all over the winter, you let it bloom in the spring, and then chop and drop before it goes to seed (cut it down right above soil line, and let it lie on the ground to rot into the soil.) If you are into shaggy, meadow-like fields, this would work. If you want something a bit more tailored, that would probably be your question for Extension Master Gardeners.

Here's the link to this particular mix https://sowtrueseed.com/collections/cover-crops/products/over-wintering-mix and here's the link to their various cover crops, both individual and mixes. All the ones that I've checked out* are safe for poultry (per the ingredients list.) https://sowtrueseed.com/collections...sQGTKgilUPwbjqV0hHBzwWXuEU7xz9hrcTijSYQQBr7dm

*Note: "all the ones that I've checked out" doesn't mean that I've checked them all out. Just the ones I'm interested in. Read the ingredients list.
View attachment 4224616

Here’s the perennial rye-crimson clover-hairy vetch patch, just 8 days after seeding. Seedlings appeared 3 days after planting and grew so quickly that they were noticeably taller each evening than they had been in the morning.

Today we moved the fencing around to allow the chickens access. I’ll update with photos to see how quickly it goes.

This morning (day 8):

(And only six hours later, showing the beginnings of wear and tear):

 

[Mother of Chaos]

An important note about planting hairy vetch: the seeds, but no other part of the plant, are toxic to chickens (research done on chicks, when the seeds were 95% of their diet.) So when you plant, exclude the planting patch from your chickens until all the seeds have erupted (I almost wrote “hatched.”)

Other posters here on much older threads have noted that their chickens foraged on hairy vetch plants and were fine.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119377910

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Sunday (24 hours after allowing 5 pullets access):

Monday (48 hours) with 3 of the perps: