Jon Gagnon

Hi Chris,

Are you growing the grasses for the chickens to eat or leaving them to go to seed so they can eat the seeds? I'm just wondering if I'm feeding them grasses or the seeds of the grasses or a combination of both?

Thank you for all the info! I just have a few clarifying questions. (really am a novice...)

What do you mean by "making small breaks?"

Is there any strategies to ensure better germination and growth if we are over-seeding by hand?

What is a falling plate meter?

When frost seeding when do you integrate livestock into that paddock? Or, if it rested for the season, how would you recommend controlling weed and other grasses' growth?

If I section off an area to rest and restore is there any cover crop, or regular crop, or trap crop that anyone would recommend? Aside from comfrey which was mentioned.

We have plenty of room and do have a chicken tractor, but it only fits about 1/4 of our flock. I am located in Southwestern Ontario.

Thanks for all the ideas. Is there any value in sectioning off a part of the chicken yard and using cover crop and/or intense mulching to build the soil up?

hi all,

Wondering if anyone has some useful information about improving the soil biodiversity in a chicken yard? We have a chicken yard that doesn't offer as much to the chickens as we'd like. Is there a strategy to increase the tithe or humus in a chicken yard with the overall goal of offering more insects, etc. for the chickens?

Thanks!

Hi,

I am a novice at dairy and generally livestock. We have 2 Kerry cows currently and are land hasn't had ruminants on it for a while and so our pasture aren't ideal. We have acres that could be restored. I am wondering what is the ideal practice to improve a pasture that consists mostly of twitchgrass but with some timothy and clover. Do you need to plow it or can you just cultivate it? What are all the steps needed if I wanted to introduce better grasses and more leguminous plants?

Hope that's enough information.