growing grain for chickens

[seedcorn]

One word of caution on buying feed for seed. A lot of the sunflowers are hybrids which means you may get all types of plants (short/tall, low yielding etc). Not sure on the milo or millet.

Probably not a big deal since you aren't going for top end yields but if you get different types, that would be why.

 

[digitS']

Spray millet is probably going to be foxtail millet. Proso millet is probably what is in your birdseed mixes.

I bought foxtail millet quite a few years ago from Johnny's Seed. Along with that, I also got some Black-tipped wheat. Johnny's sells these things as ornamentals and that's what we used them for but I've also fed them to the chickens. Milo is a sorghum and you can also get that from Johnny's. I really don't know if there are more suitable varieties for feeding livestock but really suspect there are. The price for livestock varieties should be cheaper but finding it in smaller quantities may be a problem.

Once I had this seed, it wasn't much trouble to keep some from one year to the next. And, I've got sunflowers - some of which are for the chickens.

Of all of them, I suppose that the wheat seems the most suitable and easy to grow for chickens. It is also real easy to harvest and process - if it is just for feeding whole to chickens. You just cut it, lay it out on a tarp, walk on it for awhile, then toss off anything that isn't seed.

I used my entire bed of it for chicken food once and kept track of the yield but can't find the information right now. But, I got about what one would get in a farm field - just growing 100 square feet of it. Nevertheless, whole wheat is pretty darn cheap and you need to ask yourself, as I have, how much of the garden do I want to take up with this? Didn't grow it this year but will again.

My little flock of laying hens get all sorts of garden stuff. I really need to show some control so that I'm not filling them up on tomatoes and cucumbers, sweetcorn and zucchini. Those are all things I'd have out there whether I had chickens or not - people food.

Seeds do make sense tho', as a chicken food. Their nutritients are far more concentrated than most things coming out of the garden. And, they are easier to store for later feeding.

Steve

edited to add: You do have to watch the wild birds. They are, however, good guides for the maturity of the crop. So, as soon as they start to feed on the heads of sunflowers and millet this year, I brought those things home. I did have an additional problem once things got into the backyard. I think the sparrows here ate as much of the millet this year as the chickens. Hanging it anytime at all in the carport doesn't work .

edit again: The yield of my 100 square feet of garden wheat equaled the yield of 100 square feet of wheat grown in a farm field. I'm not sure if that was clear . . .

 

[Greensage45]

I grew both, they both form the same kind of heads; but I did find out that the bagged bird millet spray does a very dainty small spray versus the white millet found in Wild Bird mixes does a great big seed spray.

Next year I will try to grow more of the White for the larger heads! I don't use this on my chickens, but on my parakeets and lovebirds.

Ron :coolsun

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

I just got that book too! Gene Logsdon has some great books out there.

i'm loving the book - and yes i'm going to get a couple more of his. i like his easy writing style and good and practical info..especially about crop rotations. and since i'm about in his zone -- its great to have a schedule all right there!

i have to say that i laughed..a lot... at myself. at one point i threw down the book, stomped into the other room, and announced to my hubby - do you know we can MAKE our own polenta!?!?!

who knew it was just dried sweet corn in a blender.... around here its hard to find in the stores and really expensive. of course right after i read that all the sweet corn folks had stopped selling it locally. oh well.. now i know

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

So what about growing field corn and sunflowers as well? Milo grows very easily as well. I would certainly like to be able to grow more of the feed our animals need - those trips to the feed store are getting mighty expensive.... :/

 

[seedcorn]

I just got that book too! Gene Logsdon has some great books out there.

i'm loving the book - and yes i'm going to get a couple more of his. i like his easy writing style and good and practical info..especially about crop rotations. and since i'm about in his zone -- its great to have a schedule all right there!

i have to say that i laughed..a lot... at myself. at one point i threw down the book, stomped into the other room, and announced to my hubby - do you know we can MAKE our own polenta!?!?!

who knew it was just dried sweet corn in a blender.... around here its hard to find in the stores and really expensive. of course right after i read that all the sweet corn folks had stopped selling it locally. oh well.. now i know

It's just corn meal made out of any type of corn you want to use-not sweet corn. Mostly white corn that is the worst for digestability as it's all hard starch.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

It's just corn meal made out of any type of corn....

i cant BELIEVE that i didnt know that! i mean sure.. i kinda knew... i just didnt know how and that a blender was such a handy-dandy tool!
;-)

i cant wait for the next growing season. its gonna be nothing but wheat, sunflowers, millet, and barley- and corn! whoot!

i love that Logsdon points out that we just dont think about growing grains. i mean, why the heck not! sign me up i'm sold out on the grain growing!

 

[digitS']

i cant wait for the next growing season. its gonna be nothing but wheat, sunflowers, millet, and barley- and corn! whoot!

I like that!

We have gardeners who have had beautiful, gorgeous flower beds for a dozen years . . . and never planted a single vegetable seed.

Some have fruit orchards with dozens of different trees . . . and vines.

I have a gardening friend who has ONLY grown the pumpkin that sprouts in his compost pile from each year's Halloween jack o'lantern for the last decade. His lawn, on the other hand, is a work of art. And, it's difficult for him - really difficult because he is essentially in a desert and made the decision to go entirely with native grasses. He has done so much research, bought many different varieties of seed, and kept such careful watch on that lawn!

Then we have the Ohiofarmgirl who is going to become a grain farmer . . .

Isn't gardening wonderful? It can be wonderfully productive, too? You can do it.

I used to farm for one of the large landowners hereabouts. One-half ton an acre dryland oats or 50 bushels dryland wheat - you can, probably, push the wheat yield up 50% or better with irrigation in this fairly dry part of the Wild West. Let's say you can grow 4,356 pounds of wheat on an acre with good irrigation and good soil . . .

1 acre = 43,560 square feet. So, that's .1 pound per square foot. For every 1,000 square feet of your garden, you can grow 100 pounds of wheat.

Corn? Use more nitrogen, go ahead and double that number.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

i cant wait for the next growing season. its gonna be nothing but wheat, sunflowers, millet, and barley- and corn! whoot!

I like that!

We have gardeners who have had beautiful, gorgeous flower beds for a dozen years . . . and never planted a single vegetable seed.

Some have fruit orchards with dozens of different trees . . . and vines.

I have a gardening friend who has ONLY grown the pumpkin that sprouts in his compost pile from each year's Halloween jack o'lantern for the last decade. His lawn, on the other hand, is a work of art. And, it's difficult for him - really difficult because he is essentially in a desert and made the decision to go entirely with native grasses. He has done so much research, bought many different varieties of seed, and kept such careful watch on that lawn!

Then we have the Ohiofarmgirl who is going to become a grain farmer . . .

Isn't gardening wonderful? It can be wonderfully productive, too? You can do it.

I used to farm for one of the large landowners hereabouts. One-half ton an acre dryland oats or 50 bushels dryland wheat - you can, probably, push the wheat yield up 50% or better with irrigation in this fairly dry part of the Wild West. Let's say you can grow 4,356 pounds of wheat on an acre with good irrigation and good soil . . .

1 acre = 43,560 square feet. So, that's .1 pound per square foot. For every 1,000 square feet of your garden, you can grow 100 pounds of wheat.

Corn? Use more nitrogen, go ahead and double that number.

Steve

While this is more than possible, that equal to more than 70bu/acre. I would hesitate to think an untrained person could do this. If you're going to grow wheat, it should be in ground already.

 

[digitS']

Not all wheat is fall-sown. This is Palouse Country, sort of. All that spring soft white wheat for noodles and flower tortillas - is from country like this.

Actually, I don't know why it isn't suitable most anywhere.

Wheat is grown without irrigation here but on good bottom land - 90 bushels an acre was possible even 30 years ago. If the farm has irrigation, usually a more valuable crop is grown.

Steve