Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[LeslieDJoyce]

Would you mind sharing with us what you are doing to establish a new pasture? In terms of prep, seeding, watering etc. Is this a farm field? Yard?

Thanks

So far we have done this, in this order:

Identify which areas we want to expand into.

Harvest the crops from those areas. We do this in winter, so it makes a mess. A mess that can't be addressed right away.

Those two things are interrelated. There is another area I really want, and would be the most convenient, to add to the poultry pastures ... and that area was what I was promised BEFORE I bought the chickens ... but it still has a crop on it. Long story. Aggravating story.

Then we waited for the frost/mud to subside a bit.

Yesterday we disked the field.

Next we'll order the seed.

We will probably plow the field, and spend some energy "leveling" it a bit so it blends well with the adjacent areas and is easier to move around on for us and the birds. (our farming practices can result in very uneven ground as we "trench" to harvest our crops)

We might then compact the soil a bit so it isn't so fluffy-fresh from the plows.

Then we'll broadcast the seed.

Then we'll wait. We will NOT irrigate. It's spring. It is Oregon. It will rain quite enough. Presuming we manage to get the seed down soon.

While we wait we'll probably fence the field.

A person less familiar with their soils could probably do a "soil test" first, to see if any amendments are useful ... but we've been farming this place for 103 years, and our type of farming doesn't strip the nutrients from the soil like some others. We've kinda got the hang of our soils. They're fine for pasture.

IF we were "converting" an existing field, that hadn't been recently trenched for our harvest, we could do some "no till" seeding ...

We have another field like that, and were just discussing if we could over-seed it, or if it would need to be disked. Partly that depends on the seeds ...

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Sounds like it may be difficult to find as it's not used in many areas here in the US, according to Wiki....do you have a source? Evidently you do or your Dad wouldn't have known about it, I'm thinking.

We grow a lot of clover here in Oregon. The first time I bought some I just got it at my favorite feed mill ... told them my parameters, and they did a little bag of custom blended seeds for me, including subterranean clover. They did say I'd have more luck at a SEED mill than a FEED mill, but I didn't have the energy for that at the time.

I have also seen commercial pasture seed ... sold in big bags at the farm store (no mill attached) that contain a mixture of seeds, including some "subterranean clover."

There is some info about our clover industry here ... http://www.oregonclover.org/ It has source information for where to buy seeds. Maybe that will help.

I would also suggest, and forgot to put in the last set of ideas about how to go about starting poultry pasture, that anyone contact their local Extension Service for things that grow well in your area. Those dudes have great info that is local.

The link here will help everyone you find their local Extension Service Office.

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

You know what really tickles me about legumes and even other grasses? The calcium amounts. When I read about people wanting to control calcium amounts for chicks and roosters and only letting hens have calcium in their feeds I have to chuckle....my birds are eating far more of the "allowable/recommended" calcium than can be found in any feed ration each day...and with wonderful results.

For instance...white dutch clover average calcium level is 10.1 and the minimum is higher than can be found in any feed ration out there.

Like most things, there is probably a difference when eating any individual nutrient in it's raw, forgeable, form, than when it is a supplement. All those synergies make a world of difference. Including sunshine instead of vitamin D.

They say calcium from oyster shell seems to be better for poultry than the calcium from limestone.

I use a lower-calcium feed, and offer calcium on the side. It seems to be working fine.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I found an Australian website with a list of things to plant in poultry pastures. It seems to have some good variety of things listed.

http://greenharvest.com.au/PoultrySupplies/PoultryForageSeed.html

 

[Debs55]

marking this so i can come back and read later

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I just found a site about poultry pastures ... it has an introductory page, with a few links to more specific aspects of poultry forage ... it seems to be a synthesis of information available elsewhere. I think a lot of this has been covered here, but some of it might be new.

Here is a link to the main page: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...-nutrition-and-forages-summary-and-references

 

[LindaB220]

I just found a site about poultry pastures ... it has an introductory page, with a few links to more specific aspects of poultry forage ... it seems to be a synthesis of information available elsewhere. I think a lot of this has been covered here, but some of it might be new.

Here is a link to the main page: http://ww

w.thepoultrysite.com/articles/2967/pastured-poultry-nutrition-and-forages-summary-and-references

Excellent site. I've already got my mangels, kale, clover mixture ordered. Question. Can I just throw this out or do I need to have it bush hogged. I worried about birds but some of these are tiny.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Excellent site.  I've already got my mangels, kale, clover mixture ordered.  Question.  Can I just throw this out or do I need to have it bush hogged. I worried about birds but some of these are tiny.

I read all through it and it seemed to advocate seeding bigger seeds deeper, then scratching in the tiny seeds. I'd think if you have any kind of existing pasture some stuff could be overseeded ... I bet each seed type has individual planting instructions ...

We were talking how we'd like to thatch one of our fields then overseed it ...

I love the historical stuff about the monster kale. I so want some of that!

 

[LindaB220]

I read all through it and it seemed to advocate seeding bigger seeds deeper, then scratching in the tiny seeds. I'd think if you have any kind of existing pasture some stuff could be overseeded ... I bet each seed type has individual planting instructions ...

We were talking how we'd like to thatch one of our fields then overseed it ...

I love the historical stuff about the monster kale. I so want some of that!

Monster kale. Is this the 1000 head kind?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here is another article expressing love for kale as the green stuff for yummy poultry products:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/21537/breed-feed-important-for-taste-in-organic-eggs

Today I've been looking into fermented roughage (silage) for poultry ... this is sort of a sidebar to the Fermented Feed thing, as I've been adding a bit of alfalfa pellets to my fermentation buckets with the belief that fermenting the alfalfa pellets (instead of just soaking them over night) will make them more palatable for the chickens, and also help break down some of the roughage so it is a little easier on the birds' systems ... and I found there is a study going on in Denmark that is investigating various types of silage to be integrated into the poultry diet, not just used as an afterthought. They are investigating alfalfa, maize & hemp, among other things. I haven't yet been able to locate the results of the study, but I'll keep digging.

You can bet that in the historical barn yard the chickens helped themselves to the silage fed to other livestock.