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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Sorghums, millets, and sunflowers as feed

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Sorghums, millets, and sunflowers as feed
  • Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:35:16 -0600


Harvey, the cost of poultry feed has kept us from starting egg production for
home use; here we don't have room to grow it. A friend of ours with lots of
birds and eggs for market wasn't set up to grow grains for his flocks, but he
was getting high prices for eggs so maybe he survived last year. The same
problem is showing up around here with horses. Lack of rain for pasture has
pushed too many to sell out with falling prices for local horses. There's
plenty of alfalfa grown around here, but for some locals the cost of feeding
is too much in this economy. I'd surmise that as time goes on animals will be
more financially sustainable for those with homegrown feed, and those who
still have to buy feed will need to give it up. We'll want updates on your
"Home Feeding Project".

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
>> I'm getting serious about producing more of my poultry flock's
>> (chickens, ducks, geese, sometimes guineas) feed on the home place--more
>> independence of purchased inputs, superior natural feeds. (I just
>> completed an article on this subject for Mother Earth News, out early
>> next year, I think. I expect I'll publish on the subject in Backyard
>> Poultry as well.)
>>
>> I'll be posting more later about the "Home Feeding Project" I'm
>> launching, but for now, I have questions for those of you who have tried
>> growing sorghums, millets, and sunflowers as home-grown poultry feed:
>>
>> *Sorghums: I grew black sorghum (Sorghum nigrum) and red broom corn (S.
>> vulgare) this year. As the seed panicles have ripened I have cut them
>> and thrown them to my layer flock. They love it, though I've noticed
>> that they much prefer the S. vulgare to the S. nigrum.
>>
>> I've encountered some terminological/taxonomic confusion where "sorghum"
>> is concerned. I've found some sources that uses "Sorghum bicolor" to
>> include the whole group of "broom," grain, and fodder/syrup sorghums.
>> Others said that S. vulgare and S. bicolor are synonyms.
>>
>> So, I'm confused, but I'm looking for recommendations for reliable,
>> high-yield *grain* sorghum varieties. The seeds for the ones I grew this
>> year I bought from FEDCO Seeds (Maine), but they were listed in the
>> ornamental flowers section, so I'm hoping I can find a more productive
>> grain type. Can anyone help?
>>
>> *Millets: I'm also looking for good feed millets. I grew Japanese millet
>> (seeds also from FEDCO) this year. Okay as a cover crop, but seeds quite
>> small, and the chooks didn't seem much interested in eating them. Can
>> anyone recommend good feed-grain millets, and sources of seeds?
>>
>> *Sunflowers: I grew both the big-head/big-seed type (Mammoth Russian
>> Grey Stripe) and the multi-head/smaller seed type. I just cut off the
>> heads when the seeds were ripe and threw the whole heads to the
>> birds--they pecked out the seeds themselves.
>>
>> Anyone experimented with raising sunflowers for poultry feed?
>> Recommendation on best varieties and seed sources?
>>
>> Thanks for input if this is an area of experimentation for you as well.
>>
>> ~Harvey
>>
>> --
>> Harvey in northern Virginia
>> www.themodernhomestead.us
>>
>> The building of new topsoil depends on us, and our future depends on
>> building new topsoil. This is the greatest challenge facing modern
>> agriculture. ~Christine Jones
>>






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