Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[LeslieDJoyce]

The locals here converted some farm land back to native grasses for a wild bird preserve. They said using an especially deep plow to get to the ancient roots and expose them worked. At least in our area ...

There are some really cool graphics showing the extensive rooting systems of native grasses. Natives work for not needing irrigation, but some native grasses are more like trees and maybe not always what chickens can cope with.

 

[Beekissed]

How do you find all these great articles? I try to Google something and I end up with mostly crap lol
Thanks!

I don't know! I've often wondered why folks don't just do a search but many claim they don't get the same results I do...maybe because I'm on an old fashioned PC instead of on a phone or iPad? Google makes everyone look like a genius!

All that info at one's fingertips...what a luxury.

 

[Beekissed]

The locals here converted some farm land back to native grasses for a wild bird preserve. They said using an especially deep plow to get to the ancient roots and expose them worked. At least in our area ...

There are some really cool graphics showing the extensive rooting systems of native grasses. Natives work for not needing irrigation, but some native grasses are more like trees and maybe not always what chickens can cope with.

Sure will...plowing deep here will sure turn up a lot of weed seeds one doesn't want in their garden!

I'd say that would sure do the trick in trying to develop grasses and weed cover for wild birds. Not sure if it would turn up good pasture, though, unless one was to keep it groomed down with active grazing or mowing.

At the last place I lived, I improved grasses a good bit in the yard by having a few hair sheep to keep it grazed down. They free ranged with the chickens and it was a good partnership...really saw some changes in the harvest of apples in the orchard and the nature of the grasses there and in the yard area.

 

[JesNflock]

I don't know! I've often wondered why folks don't just do a search but many claim they don't get the same results I do...maybe because I'm on an old fashioned PC instead of on a phone or iPad? Google makes everyone look like a genius!

All that info at one's fingertips...what a luxury.

lol Yeah, it never works out like I want it too...I want to say ok magic screen find EXACTLY what I am looking for! My DH has much better luck with computers than me so I try to get him to help me out from time to time, but as much as I've been on this site and with as many questions I have about chickens I think he would keep walking lol He already laughs at me because I have a bunch of BYC tabs open a lot...I tell him there is so many things I want to read about and I don't want to lose them

I think he thinks I'm nuts!

 

[Beekissed]

http://www.caes.uga.edu/publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_id=7268

Quote:
TDN stands for total digestible nutrients

Table 1. Approximate nutrient content (% dry matter) of some common grass and clover pasture plants. (Hoveland, 2000)
Species Crude Protein TDN Calcium Phosphorus Magnesium
---------- -------- ---%--- ---------- ----------
White clover 25 80 1.5 0.4 0.4
Red clover 20 70 1.5 0.4 0.4
-
Annual ryegrass 20 68 0.5 0.3 0.2
Orchardgrass 15 65 0.3 0.3 0.2
Tall fescue 13 62 0.3 0.3 0.2
Bermudagrass 10 54 0.3 0.2 0.2

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here is a cutesy write up of a study discovering what we already know ... Clover is more nutritious for chickens than plain grass ... http://news.psu.edu/story/140750/2003/05/01/research/pasture-ized-poultry

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

This article almost has a "why bother?" tone. Nevertheless, it focuses on why pasture is important as a supplement for poultry ... http://science-in-farming.library4farming.org/Grass-Soil-Manure/Forage-for-Livestock/POULTRY.html

 

[Beekissed]

This article almost has a "why bother?" tone. Nevertheless, it focuses on why pasture is important as a supplement for poultry ... http://science-in-farming.library4farming.org/Grass-Soil-Manure/Forage-for-Livestock/POULTRY.html

Any time I see reports on such things after they have done "scientific studies" on it, I know it has very little practical application in a backyard setting. Whenever a study is conducted it's under controlled conditions and there are no such things in the pasture of real chickens. What breeds they use to derive these conclusions, the stocking rate, the type of forage, how early they were out on forage as young chicks, etc. all plays into just how much nutrition is derived when chickens eat grass.

That's why I use my own backyard for a laboratory and measure my own results in practical ways like feed cost savings, the health of the birds, egg production, meat and fat quality, observing their actual foraging and what types of grasses are preferred and how much they actually graze them in a day's time and how that fluctuates season to season.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I keep researching poultry science research looking for nutritional information but finding mostly economics ... :/

Modern Poultry Science is Economics.

I'm glad you're here, BK.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm glad you are here too, LJ! It helps to have someone with similar interests to bounce ideas off of and see what comes back. Helps me think and then formulate my thoughts into action. I've only been intentionally improving pasture for the past 7 yrs or so for the purpose of livestock feed but it makes a lot of sense to me to use that green stuff out there as free food that I don't have to buy. I had to go a long way to keep my mother, the mowing queen, from cutting the grass too often or too short so as to let the grasses go to seed and reseed themselves these past two years.

At my place, I just kept sheep on the grass and didn't have to worry about mowing, letting the sheep condition the pasture in a more natural way...all the while fertilizing it as they went along.