Grain/grass feeding

[Driley62]

Hello everyone,

I'm planning on planting cereal rye(maybe rye grass too), buckwheat and clover either this fall or in the spring. What im curious about is if I plant it in a graze box, even though the plants themselves won't get to grain production height because of the constant clipping from grazing chickens. Will they still be getting nutrition without consuming the grain itself?

 

[Perris]

yes, grass, clover, pasture is excellent nutrition

 

[Driley62]

yes, grass, clover, pasture is excellent nutrition

I figured it was goofy to ask but then thought there must be some nutrition loss without the grain itself thats not produced

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I figured it was goofy to ask but then thought there must be some nutrition loss without the grain itself thats not produced

At the risk of outing one of my secrets, I find this source remarkably useful. Sometimes, you need to hunt a bit, but all the common, most of the uncommon, and a decent amount of the truly obscure is gathered here, nutrition wise. Unfortunately, its not all presented in the same way, so sometimes you need to do a bit of conversion, but the information is generally reliable and accurate to within reasonable ranges of disagreement and/or natural variation.

 

[Sally PB]

Thanks for the link!

It doesn't list the grasses I would most like to be rid of, like and quackgrass and crabgrass. Man, if those made good chicken feed, I'd be all set!

 

[Driley62]

At the risk of outing one of my secrets, I find this source remarkably useful. Sometimes, you need to hunt a bit, but all the common, most of the uncommon, and a decent amount of the truly obscure is gathered here, nutrition wise. Unfortunately, its not all presented in the same way, so sometimes you need to do a bit of conversion, but the information is generally reliable and accurate to within reasonable ranges of disagreement and/or natural variation.

I've been looking for an informational site like that for months! Thank you!

 

[Driley62]

So currently speaking, my local feed store has buckwheat, cereal rye and clover(not sure type had connection issue when he said it but imagine red or white clover as it's super abundant around me). I'm thinking when I pick up more feed on Thursday I planned on getting a pound of all three and mixing up a bit of each to get enough for a graze box started.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I agree. Mix it up.

 

[Driley62]

I agree. Mix it up.

Now I'm wondering the yield. If I make a patch off to the side to be cut down to be used as a food/bedding come winter months. I think I can do a small patch of 4x10(I don't have a large patch of land so I'm very limited on my cover crop size). Not looking to make a shit ton of grasses for the winter if you catch my drift. I only have 20 birds so if I can't harvest say 3 times out of a 40 square foot patch(just like farmers hoping to get 3 cuts out of their fields for their cows) I think I'd be in pretty decent shape.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Couldn't tell you. I don't have a green thumb. Nor are our growing zones even remotely similar. Yes, that's a rather small area to work - but anything is better than nothing.