Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[LeslieDJoyce]

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. 

You are well ahead of me in active poultry pasture management! Your practice experience is a great resource.

Have you planted comfrey? I keep reading good stuff about it, but this resource says it is partially hype ... http://www.feedipedia.org/node/92

It regenerates well, but isn't as digestible or high in protein as white clover.

 

[Beekissed]

I never have...it's not a real common pasture seed to find where I live and I've heard good things about it medicinally but have never heard anything about using it in a pasture mix. I try to stick with cheap and available, combined with the most productive...and that goes for all manner of feed and breeds and types of animals I keep.

I've been forced into frugality by my life and how it meandered down the road and now I've come to love living that way...it's sort of a challenge and a game to do things cheaper than everyone else and still have good results. I guess it's one of the few areas where I am competitive. Not to the point that I'm cutting coupons or anything, as they rarely are for anything I would buy but just basic, common sense frugality in all areas of life.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

BK mentioned adding stuff to her soil. This link talks about soil testing to determine if soil needs something ... It's from the Extension Service in Oregon, but is still pretty useful for everyone ... http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/metro/sites/default/files/Testing_Soil_pH.pdf

 

[Beekissed]

Most any extension office does soil testing for free and they also will help you determine the best grasses to improve your pasture for whatever livestock you are wanting to place on it. It's a nice, free resource. Some states will even give you seed if you are growing "game plots" for the wildlife, so check into that if you have deer and wild turkey that frequent your acreage.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Since it's "winter" here, I'm looking into winter stuff ... Chickweed is the traditional winter treat for chickens ... here is a little article about it:

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Chickweed_is_a_winter_pick-me-up_for_chickens/

Here is a more "fun" page about chickweed, including some recipes:

http://www.squidoo.com/stellaria

If you don't already have chickweed in your area that you can "encourage" to grow in your chicken pasture, here is a place to buy it. More useful maybe is instructions about when to plant chickweed:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/seeds/seeds.php

 

[Beekissed]

Winter wheat is very easy to germinate and grow in the winter months and is a staple in winter game plots here in WV. The chickens love it also, so growing greens intentionally for the chooks just for winter months can include this cheap and easy way to do it. It doesn't reseed itself too well as it's usually consumed before maturing. Dad used to plant it on the garden at the end of the season for the deer to eat in the winter and then plow it under in the spring for green manure.

http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ag/other/fs9940.pdf

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Winter wheat is very easy to germinate and grow in the winter months and is a staple in winter game plots here in WV. The chickens love it also, so growing greens intentionally for the chooks just for winter months can include this cheap and easy way to do it. It doesn't reseed itself too well as it's usually consumed before maturing. Dad used to plant it on the garden at the end of the season for the deer to eat in the winter and then plow it under in the spring for green manure.

http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ag/other/fs9940.pdf

BK, that's just what another local (to Oregon, Robert Plamondon) pastured poultry guy says. "I haven't seen any perennial grasses that leap out of the ground after a fall sowing the way wheat and oats do, but of course they don't turn up their toes and die as soon as summer arrives, which is a bonus."

He said elsewhere that he'd figured out the secret to great tasting eggs, and that secret was "grass." I believe by grass he meant "pasture," which is more complex than grass, but we know what he means.

Here is a little article he wrote about winter poultry pasture:
http://plamondon.com/b2e/blog4.php/2009/10/19/winter-pasture-for-grass-fed-eggs

At the end of that article Plamondon states "A lot of this information came from Feeding Poultry by G. F. Heuser."

Plamondon has reprinted Heuser's Feeding Poultry book, and recommends people buy it from Amazon ... http://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Poult...id=1385229579&sr=8-1&keywords=Feeding+Poultry

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

This two-page document talks a little bit about other things to include in a poultry habitat to diversify the foraging options. I've got some space, so I'm looking into a big variety of trees ...

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/sorec/sites/default/files/grow_your_own_poultry_feed.pdf

 

[centrarchid]

I am doing similar to objective of this thread. Observations have indicated herbacius legumes figure heavily in the diet of my birds. I also value the plants as cover from elements and predators as well as bio-attractors for insect forages. Other issues of concern are seasonality and time required to get plant community into working order. Behavioral limitations of birds are also taken into account as to how they impact use of plant community and landscape as a whole.



https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/791717/free-range-keeping-of-american-dominiques

 

[Aphrael]

Bee, thank you so much for directing me to this thread.

I have been doing as much research and reading as I can on good ways to make me and my flock more self sufficient. Not only will it be cost saving once established, but I believe it will also be much healthier for my chooks as well as for all of us that eat their eggs and meat.

I have been looking into which native grasses are the best nutrition for them. However, the only source I found to buy seed for the grasses native to my area are frighteningly expensive. So I am thinking that I may try to gather some seeds myself and/or dig some up to try transplanting. For chicken "lawn" areas I'd like to encourage a mix of native grasses interspersed with alfalfa, clover and such. I don't know how the alfalfa and clover will do in my heat and drought heavy area without lots of extra watering, but I want to find out.