Feeding Alfafa Silage

[Country Parson]

A neighbor who raises dairy is willing to give me quite a bit of silage if the chickens would eat it. He was asking about raising chickens (he never has), and the discussion turned to rising feed costs. He offered to let me periodically have some silage out of his silo in return for eggs and a few of the meaties (when I butcher in the summer).

Would this be safe and/or healthy for my chickens, ducks, and geese? Any guesses as to the protein level?

 

[Katy]

We have sorghum silage for our cows......I tried giving some to mine one time....they picked the grain out of it and left the rest.

 

[Organics North]

Might as well try.. It can not hurt..
ON

 

[they'reHISchickens]

When we had chickens on our dairy farm, they were fed the dairy grain mixture, but not the silage. I don't think they would eat the corn plant even in the green stage. Corn is a grass, but they'd have to be desperate to eat the mature plant. OTOH, when wild pheasants were plentiful, they would ravage newly planted corn fields as the plants sprouted to eat the grain off the end of the sprouts.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I feed my girls alfalfa pellets which have been reconstituted with hot water. I've read a lot of people here on BYCF have chickens which scavenge alfalfa pellets fed to cattle and horses! My chickens love the alfalfa mash. I get the pellets from TSC.
It's deep, cold, white winter in Michigan with absolutely no forage. I believe the alfalfa mash has really helped my girl's health and vitality this winter.
Not sure what the difference between the pellets and alfalfa silage would be, but I'm guessing the pellets are the ground up and pelletized whole plant.