Could I feed my hens Johnsons grass?

[blue-azurite]

My area has a lot of invasive sorghum growing and I wanna do my part for the environment by thinking of all the ways I can harvest it.
Can/will chickens eat johnsons grass? I don't wanna harvest a bunch if they aren't gonna show any interest or if it isn't good for them.

 

[nuthatched]

Like just the grass? Or the grains? I recommend goats.

 

[Perris]

My area has a lot of invasive sorghum growing and I wanna do my part for the environment by thinking of all the ways I can harvest it.
Can/will chickens eat johnsons grass? I don't wanna harvest a bunch if they aren't gonna show any interest or if it isn't good for them.

you could let the chickens forage in it and see whether or not they eat it. Fresh greens of more or less any sort are usually good for them. But I've never heard of johnsons grass; can you give the botanical name for that?

btw, welcome to BYC

 

[Ridgerunner]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_grass

An excerpt from that article.

It is considered to be one of the ten worst weeds in the world

Had that growing up in East Tennessee. Horrible stuff. My suggestion to getting rid of it is to fence it in and let hogs root it out. I don't think it hurts hogs.

The foliage is pretty coarse. I doubt they would eat it. You could cut it, dry it, and use it for bedding in the nests. It might work as bedding in the run too but don't bring in any seeds or rhizomes.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Goats.

Sorghum (seeds) are fine for chickens, within reason. I've even tried (twice) deliberately introducing a sorghum/sudangrass hybrid into my pasture (w/o much success) to provide additional forage.

But if you need to control it, and aren't willing to do it mechanically, goats love coarse forage.

 

[Al Gerhart]

IF you cut fresh sprouts of Johnson grass the chickens will eat but not the coarse stuff. Watch it if any part of it turns reddish color, it can become poisonous during droughts or very high heat