Shocker Price for Feed

[CelticOaksFarm]

We plant Millet (brown) along with oats as most grasses don't handle our heat well at all and burnt out. Bahia grass is a good long term pasture cover here for us.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We plant Millet (brown) along with oats as most grasses don't handle our heat well at all and burnt out. Bahia grass is a good long term pasture cover here for us.

Celtic, do you put fish meal into your feed? or kelp or have you ever?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Lydia, no we dont, I know Vicki (CottageRose) has and may still. It isnt readily available here (kelp meal).

 

[ChristineR]

Oats grow a lovely tender, wide leafed succulent grass. It is excellent forage and easy to grow. Once the grain head is mature, the grass stalk turns that golden color and it is no longer good feed. if farmers are cutting oat for hay, they cut when the seed head is still only half mature and get a nice pale green hay. Once the seed is mature, if it is cut, you get oat straw with no feed value.

Oats are an annual. They are easy to grow, but the plant lasts one year. Seed is cheap and it will self-sow if your birds don't eat all the fallen grain (which they probably will)

Orchard grass is a perennial. Once it is established, it will be there for years. It has a good high protein content, which is why it is recommended for hay and pasture. It is low maintenance and you don't have to do much for it. Seed costs a lot more than oat seed, but it is for a permanent installation. If you buy direct from the farmer, it is probably about 50 cents a pound for orchard grass seed. I paid 33 cents a pound for orchard grass seed, but that was 5 years ago.

You can get both oat and orchard grass and plant them together. The oats come up fast for feed right mow and the orchard grass will be slower to establish but it will be back next year.

Thanks for the info. I planted a mix of Orchard and clover several years ago, which is what my geese are on now, but it's a small area outside of my horse pasture and I really need to cut down a bunch of doug firs and use it to grow forage. Especially if feed prices continue to climb.

Question about feeding field peas: I've read that you should not feed raw legumes to waterfowl. Aren't field peas a legume?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the info. I planted a mix of Orchard and clover several years ago, which is what my geese are on now, but it's a small area outside of my horse pasture and I really need to cut down a bunch of doug firs and use it to grow forage. Especially if feed prices continue to climb.

Question about feeding field peas: I've read that you should not feed raw legumes to waterfowl. Aren't field peas a legume?

I thought they were?

 

[Amiga]

I thought they were?

Page 257 of Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks talks about problems with raw legumes, and in the same paragraph talks about feeding heat treated soybeans to ducks. See if this link works.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7P...onepage&q=waterfowl raw legumes toxic&f=false

Countryside Organic Layer Feed has field peas in it, not soybeans.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Page 257 of Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks talks about problems with raw legumes, and in the same paragraph talks about feeding heat treated soybeans to ducks. See if this link works.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7P...onepage&q=waterfowl raw legumes toxic&f=false

Countryside Organic Layer Feed has field peas in it, not soybeans.

I bought 150lbs of Countryside back in the winter and my flock did not like it, was very dusty too. I did add some dried split peas to the feed this week along with barley and whole oats and wheat berries. thanks for the link Amiga, I have the book need to keep it out for reference.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

field peas here are for our goats and only planted in the rear pasture they use during winter. Have read to not feed the raw field peas to waterfowl.

 

[Amiga]

When I fed Countryside I would moisten it and the ducks had an easier time of eating it. But due to the expense (I had to have it shipped), I went with different feed after a while. Now that Blue Seal makes organic feed, it's easier. But that went up in price about $4 a bag recently and I expect it to keep rising. Looking at the non-organic feed next to the organic, I can see there is much more lighter yellow material, which I reckon is corn, in the non-organic mix.

 

[Going Quackers]

I decided to try some whole oats with them today, just mixed it in with the flock raiser.. they went a bit

like what is in my food! especially the younger ones but i'll know tonight how it went over lol