Easy to grow crops for supplementing feed

[Battlepants]

I have nearly an acre of land that is currently just grass but never really used for anything useful. Been thinking about turning this area into farmland for the purposes of supplementing feed and maybe supplementing our own food supply. Now, the debate comes to "what should we grow?"

I am currently working with some native blackberry bushes out there for our own supply of blackberry jam.
Considering putting down a bunch of black oil sunflowers mostly for the chickens, but some may be consumed by the humans too.

Any other crops worth looking into?
Level of effort is hopefully just till the soil, drop in a seed, come back 3-4 months later, and lop off the part that I want to harvest.
Not really going to be offering any grazer protection - if I lose some of the crop to wild deer, that's fine.
Hardiness zone is 6.

 

[_-Captain BRM-_]

For chickens, I doesn't matter if the corn is sweet or not, they'll eat it anyway. Corn is easy to grow, not easy to grow to taste good I would suggest corn for them, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Beyond BOSS and corn, I think squash and pumpkin may be good choices.

I like butternut squash in particular. A single fruit provides a side dish for dinner, and the seeds, bulb, skins, etc. are fed to the flock. I find that chickens can eat more of the scraps if you boil, steam, or microwave them to soften them up.

 

[Battlepants]

Beyond BOSS and corn, I think squash and pumpkin may be good choices.

I like butternut squash in particular. A single fruit provides a side dish for dinner, and the seeds, bulb, skins, etc. are fed to the flock. I find that chickens can eat more of the scraps if you boil, steam, or microwave them to soften them up.

That is good to know about cooking the scraps. We had a pumpkin last year that we forgot to carve, so instead we just celebrated Halloween with the chicken. It took them like a month to go through like half that pumpkin. Ended up throwing it in the woods when it got a bit moldy.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This comes up all the time. there are multiple threads on it.

I have three recommendations.

One, plant what works for you, with a minimum of work - its going to have to survive and thrive in spite of the chickens. You didn't list your location, we can't make recommends.

Two, plant multiple things, rather than a monolithic planiting of a single crop, both to help avoid dietary imbalance, and to stretch your growing season.

Three, plant high value crops. Corn is cheap. Its getting more expensive yes, but you won't grow it cheaper than a commercial farmer, and its low value to chickens anyways from a nutrition standpoint. No, its not "bad". But its certainly not good. Its a ready bulk energy source whose deficiences are broad, but relatively easily compensated for.

If your grounds, and your climate, will permit it, looks to adding some legume(s) forage - soy, clover, alfalfa, trefoil, vetch. Some pulses - field peas, winter peas, various beans. A near-grain or true grain. Amaranth, Tef, Buckwheat, Sorghum, millets. and diversify your grasses. Orchard grass in more northern areas, or slightly shady locations. Panic grasses (scribner's panicgrass does well for me here), as do some of the taller prarie grasses, though they are less productive in terms of edible seeds. These also provide veritcle support for the vetches, and help the clovers mound.

All are nutritionally much better crops, and can be cut, dried, stored if needed.

 

[Alagirl]

I hope you have the means to store your bounty!
Look into crop rotation for one. Grow stuff your family will also eat.
Corn might grow easily enough, but growing it in small badges is challenging (it needs to be planted in blocks vs rows)
Where I live, everybody grows tomatoes.

So for me, I would plant cabbages (and there are so many yummie ones!), beans, some root vegetables (my mom fed her flock carrots and strawberries she gets from a fruit stand when it's past their prime, such delicious eggs!) berries, naturally.
and stuff that is exotic in the retail world. Amaranth for one, or other seeds. I am not sure I would plant BOSS.

and do keep in mind: breaking sod up usually requires a tractor and some sort of plow....and keeping up with an acre of basically a garden is hard work as well.

I have a quarter of that, and it's a lot of work to get started (Of course now nobody has tillers in the stores right now.....)

 

[Sally PB]

I have nearly an acre of land that is currently just grass but never really used for anything useful. Been thinking about turning this area into farmland for the purposes of supplementing feed and maybe supplementing our own food supply.

An acre of land is 43,560 square feet. That is a lot of area to till with a tiller, if you have one. Depending on the soil type, you will have to till it at least twice to break it up. Since it's been grass, it will be a battle to keep the grass from just taking it back. Believe me, that stuff is tenacious! Long (up to 36") underground stolons (underground rooting stems) reach everywhere. Chop them up with the tiller, and they start new plants wherever they are.

I have what some people would call a large garden, about 30x90 feet. It is VERY heavy clay soil in a field of grass. I'm in my 4th year, and I fight the grass all the time. The year I broke ground, I tilled it 3 times before I could rake it anything like smooth.

Level of effort is hopefully just till the soil, drop in a seed, come back 3-4 months later, and lop off the part that I want to harvest.

Not to rain on your parade here, but this is not realistic. There are some plants that will probably grow, but many will not be able to compete with the grass long enough to get started and then grow to fruition. Other grasses are probably the best candidates, but I don't know enough about them to recommend anything. Your blackberries might do well, but again, I don't know.

Can you get water to this, in case you have a dry spell? The native grass can go dormant, then come back when it rains. Some other grasses will do that, but many plants will need water, especially to get started.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Not to rain on your parade here, but this is not realistic. There are some plants that will probably grow, but many will not be able to compete with the grass long enough to get started and then grow to fruition. Other grasses are probably the best candidates, but I don't know enough about them to recommend anything. Your blackberries might do well, but again, I don't know.

Can you get water to this, in case you have a dry spell? The native grass can go dormant, then come back when it rains. Some other grasses will do that, but many plants will need water, especially to get started.

Really makes me wish I had taken some "wide angle" views of my acre of weeds the first year, to help provide OP some reference points. In spite of my more forgiving climate, and my regular rainfall, it was almost entirely loose sand, exposed clays, and weeds I didn't want (like tropical soda apple!). I'm now in my third year, and still don't have complete coverage in green, much less desired green.

and I bought a mattock to break the soil, so I can then use the "tiller". THAT is backbreaking work.

oh yeah, and tillers? SHALLOW. @Sally PB is underselling how hard it is to remove the roots of undesired species. No gas or electric hand tool will till deep enough to reach the deep roots unless you plan multiple passes, piling dirt elsewhere as you till your way down. That's why they are frequently called "cultivators" - they lack the power and the depth to do more without a lot of effort on your part. Most home use products will only reach a depth of around 4". Typical grasses routinely root to twice that depth. Even shallow herbs like mint and creeping thyme will carpet deeper than the first (and maybe second) pass of a hand operated cultivator.

 

[Sally PB]

I have a 25+ year old Craftsman rear tine rototiller. It was VERY hard work to break the sod for the above mentioned garden. I have another garden that is very sandy soil, and by comparison, it's a slow amble with a lot of turns. I'd say it tills 6" deep in the sandy soil, but it fights to get to that depth in the clay.

Here are some more ideas if you are serious about this for the long haul.

Till it, or get someone to till it, and be as thorough in breaking it up as possible. If you have kids, get them to help remove every single root you can. ("Hey, kids, whoever fills up this trash bag with roots gets __________!")

Now plant buckwheat, thickly. It sprouts fast, and will shade out a lot of the weeds before they can get started. When it's close to flowering, usually 4-6 weeks, chop it all down to the ground and let it sit for a week. Chop it up if you can. Then till it under.

Plant buckwheat again and do the same thing. You can do it a third time if your season is long enough.

Yeah, it takes most/all of your growing season, unless you're in the south. No, buckwheat does NOT fix nitrogen into the soil, but this will add biomass to enrich the soil.

This is the best way I know of to get rid of the grass and weeds. Unless you want to kill them with pesticides.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Protip. If you have chickens, and they have access, 50# of buckwheat groats will disappear before any of them sprout. Sudangrass/Sorghum seed doesn't fair any better.

Don't ask how I know this.