Growing our own feed, question on protein... peas?

[eKo_birdies]

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I agree - we use our goats to "grind the alfalfa & clover" -- we feed them in a tub.

I have 1/4 inch hardware cloth that I pour the tub contents through each morning and filter out the stems from the leaves. Only takes a couple of minutes for two #10 cans of fresh ground hay

I usually mix this 50/50 corn/hay for the chickens and they do very well with it.


We started feeding the goats in a tub instead of a rack because they were sloppy eaters. Now we get the added benefit of some free protein for the chickens that would have normally ended up being bedding or wasted.

this is a great idea!!!!!! i have 2 goats coming next week and will be feeding them out of tub. i was going to anyway.. but i never thought to sift the leaves from the stems w/ hardware cloth. love this idea!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

as for turnip greens YES, they love them. And they are a hardy plant that stands up to the abuse well.
speaking of hay, giving them just the leaves sounds like a good idea and mine love to peck little tiny bites off the growing plants (right down to the roots) but I make a point of saying little tiny bites because that is very different than hay. I have seen several impacted crops due to people using alfalfa hay in the chicken runs, so be careful.

 

[Dogfish]

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Brassica is related to turnips, cabbage, and mustard. It is a real easy plant/forage to grow. I rototilled 0.25 acres, tossed the seed on, and followed up with a rake. 17-24% protein.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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Really? I've used alf alfa hay for a few years now for my layers. Thats my secret to keep the yolks orange through the winter... I haven't had any problems yet. But I will have to keep an eye out.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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Brassica is related to turnips, cabbage, and mustard. It is a real easy plant/forage to grow. I rototilled 0.25 acres, tossed the seed on, and followed up with a rake. 17-24% protein.

If the winter is real bad, the deer will dig up the turnips in late February. I haven't seen my local deer touch them until they are starving. I usually have a lot of root crops left over in the gardens, the one is over an acre and they go nuts in February for the radishes and turnips and carrots if I have any.

But my chickens will eat them too. Right to the ground if I would let them.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

I am growing forage turnips, oats, and millet for my chickens. they love the millet and also fresh sunflower seeds, and the oats and turnips aren't ready so I don't know if they will like those.

 

[ShadyHoller]

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Brassica is related to turnips, cabbage, and mustard. It is a real easy plant/forage to grow. I rototilled 0.25 acres, tossed the seed on, and followed up with a rake. 17-24% protein.

Brassica is the general family name of all the "cole crops," including some surprising ones, like Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, Kohlrabi, broccoli, rutabaga, mustard and rapeseed, none of which look much like your standard turnip. The list goes on and on, and most of them can cross-pollinate easily.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica

It's my understanding that forage brassicas are normally a type of turnip. I knew turnips were planted for livestock, I just didn't know they were as high protein as some of the legumes. I'm learning more and more about this as I go. I had never thought of growing them for pastured chickens.

I bet the brassicas that Mossy Oak Biologic sells is just repackaged forage brassica seed, that they buy from the cattle feed companies and sell it at a marked-up price to sportsmen. I know that's what they do with their Biologic "Guides' Choice" waterfowl seed. It's nothing but standard Japanese millet, buckwheat and sorghum, all of which can be picked up at a seed wholesaler for pennies a pound. For the field I hunt ducks out of, we get millet for $0.20/lb and buckwheat for $0.60/lb. We drill about 20 acres with that mix for a couple hundred bucks, total. Our diesel costs more than our seed. I wish I could say the same about corn seed. It gets expensive.

Oops. I think I just took my own thread off-topic. I have a tendency to do that in conversation, too...