The whole premise of our farm is to provide the best forage possible for our animals. If you’re at this site you probably have a pretty good idea about the benefits of grass fed animals. In this post let’s talk about what the animals leave behind rather than what they take from the pasture.
When we ran our layers on the lawn we could definitely see a nice green rush of new growth about 3 weeks after we moved them off. These days we do not run our layers in pens on the lawn anymore- they have too much work to do around the place to be limited in anyway. The broilers are a different story- they play a specific role in our pasture management. We need concentrated fertilizer in order to maintain a healthy poly-fodder. I am pretty sure that the favorite food for all chickens are dandelions. They love them. Quick side story:
We laid sod in our backyard….the decision was should we strip out all the old turf/weeds and place the sod on bare dirt or level it off a bit and place the sod on top of the weedy stuff. We opted for the second option…it kind seemed like lasagna composting and we were a bit pressed for equipment. We laid out the sod and it looked great…..however, after a couple of days the seams started sprouting dandelions. The hens were on them like white on rice. I am sure we would have been doomed without the hens out there standing guard on the grass waiting for the seams to share some candy. The short version- if you are going to lay sod over weeds….your seams will need to monitored and chickens work great!
The broilers go about their work methodically. First they hit the weeds, then trim the pasture consistently eating it down below a mower’s level, then they seem to settle in for the day. They work on and off throughout the day and we have yet to develop a pasture to the point where we are really happy with it (i.e. the chickens are happy with it). So things may change as the pasture develops- right now we run out of fodder in 24 hours and the broilers are ready for a move.
The area left behind when the pens are moved is usually completely covered in ‘fertilizer’ it is a bit rank in the hot sun for a couple of days, the blades of grass start to unfold themselves where they have been trampled, the ‘fertilizer’ starts to fade away and in a week it is gone. We see a quicker green rush the older the birds get. I would guess this has more to do with the increased consumption than any development changes. In other words, the day one rush comes at the same time as day five. I hope you can see from the picture how much better the pasture looks after two weeks. It truly is amazing. I wish I could make a bug count!!
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