Feed the Soil, Feed your Crops… Feed your Livestock!

We’ve (already) flipped the calendar to the month of August, which means that you might be in the throes of seeding fall vegetables and purchasing some cover crop seed for the end of the season. But if you haven’t gotten cover crops yet, there’s still some time left to order your preferred varieties before they begin to sell out. With a little luck and a bit of planning, you will hopefully be able to seed some fall covers a couple of weeks ahead of your first frost date. For most of the state, your first frost date (a frost of 32 degrees F) usually falls around October 15^th. If you are located near Lake Michigan or in some parts of southern Indiana, your first frost date will fall a week or so later.

Annual cover crops are an important food source for one of our most important types of livestock: soil microbes. They provide soil microbes with habitat, protection, and food. But cover crops can also be a great option for larger, above-ground animals!

More growers are turning their attention toward integrating livestock into their crop rotations for a variety of reasons. Enhancing soil fertility is a big reason since animals deposit nutrients in the form of manure as they go about their business. Other reasons include managing problem plants and insects (e.g., chickens love to eat grasshoppers, and goats eat weeds), extending the grazing season, and supplementing animal nutrition.

When considering annual cover crops that your livestock may enjoy, you have a lot of choices to make when it comes to selecting the best cover crop species. Animal preferences and utilization of annual forage vary. Below are a few tips and suggestions to get you started, focusing on some of our smaller livestock species:

• Chickens – chickens are omnivores that will eat insects, small animals, and plants to meet their dietary needs. A chicken’s ability to use forage depends on their type and breed, but generally, chickens can meet somewhere between 5 and 20% of their dietary needs through foraging¹. Generally, laying hens are better foragers than broilers. Chickens will eat grasses and legumes and generally prefer tender shoots that are between 2 and 5 inches tall². Good choices include oats, rye, barley, and wheat. Because chickens pluck and peck at shoots, they may encourage grasses to tiller, as long as they are not overgrazed. Chickens will also eat perennial legumes such as clover and alfalfa. Plant annual grasses during the cool season, in early spring and in fall, and allow a few weeks of growth until shoots are tall enough for chickens to forage.
• Other poultry – ducks, geese, and turkeys all forage to a certain extent on tender plants like young cover crops in addition to seeds, insects, and small animals. Of these, geese eat the largest proportion of plant material (up to 80% of their diet!), but they tend to prefer clovers and tender grasses like bluegrass and timothy over tougher types³. This preference may make them less suitable for annual cover crop grazing. Turkeys are excellent foragers and will consume a wide variety of plants, but generally need supplemental protein for the best quality bird⁴. Ducks will eat grass and other plants to a lesser extent than either geese or turkeys.
• Small ruminants – sheep and goats are herbivores and derive their dietary needs from plants (in spite of goats’ storied reputation of eating just about anything). Sheep forage differently from goats. Sheep are grazers, like cattle, whereas goats are browsers, like deer. A sheep’s diet will consist of approximately 60% grasses, 30% forbs, and 10% woody browse. A goat, on the other hand, will eat 20% grass, 20% forbs, and about 60% woody browse, if available⁵. Sheep are better suited to grazing annual cover crops based on their natural preferences than goats. A couple of advantages to grazing sheep and goats on annual cover crops are giving them a parasite-free pasture area, allowing permanent pasture to rest, and extending grazing into the winter⁶. Some species to try include oats, winter peas, turnips, and radishes.

What about water? For chickens, a water source will be required regardless of whether chickens have access to forage or not. For sheep and goats, a water source may need to be supplied under certain conditions, such as during late pregnancy and lactation, but forages will generally be able to supply a significant portion of their daily water requirement. In the wintertime, snow can also help with water intake.

Fencing is another important consideration. Small livestock like chickens, goats, and sheep can be contained with portable electric fencing – which is not only helpful for managing grazing pressure in a particular area but also helps you control where livestock fit into your crop rotation schedule. For organic growers, this is imperative since you must follow the 90-120 day rule⁷ for raw manure. If you have cattle, more substantial electric or permanent fencing might be required. This article focuses on smaller livestock species that you might have integrated into your vegetable operation, so we don’t go into detail about cattle here. But if you’re curious about cattle and grazing cover crops, see the following resources:

• Extend the Grazing Season with Cover Crops, South Dakota State University Extension – https://extension.sdstate.edu/extend-grazing-season-cover-crops
• Grazing Cover Crops, University of Missouri Extension – https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g4165
• Grazing Bites with Victor Shelton – https://u.osu.edu/beef/2015/11/18/grazing-bites-november-2015/

As for seeding rates, you can use cover crop seeding rates suggested by resources like the Midwest Cover Crops Council. You can try out their row crop species selector tool here: https://www.midwestcovercrops.org/selector-tools/ Select Indiana as your state, and use “mechanical forage harvest value” to show what species might be applicable to your livestock and your grazing situation. You will also see seeding windows appropriate for each species. If you’d like to take a look at seeding rates, click on the species of interest and then click “Planting Information” on the species landing page. Don’t be afraid to seed a little bit extra to ensure a proper stand, as germination rates on different species and varieties can vary, or if you are broadcasting rather than drilling. In addition, cover crops seeded for forage will likely benefit from some supplemental nitrogen to get them off to a healthy start. If you think your covers will need supplemental N, aim for around 50 lbs N/acre from a preferred nitrogen source to start with.

These are all just a few tips, tricks, and resources to help you think through the best cover crops to graze on your farm. If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us here at Purdue Extension with your vegetable, forage, and livestock questions!

Citations

1. Feeding the Flock by Jonathan Moyle, University of Maryland Extension. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/feeding-flock/
2. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, 2^nd (2002) by Gail Damerow. https://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Guide-Raising-Chickens-Facilities/dp/158017325X
3. Feeding Geese by Dr. Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky. https://poultry.extension.org/articles/feeds-and-feeding-of-poultry/feeding-geese/
4. Pastured Turkey Production by Kevin Ellis, NCAT. https://attra.ncat.org/publication/pastured-turkey-production/#4
5. Grazing Preferences of Sheep and Goats by Randy Shaner, University of Nebraska Extension. https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/lincolnmcpherson/Grazing%20Preferences.pdf
6. Use of annual forages in pasture rotations and as cover crops to benefit small ruminant farming systems by Richard Ehrhardt, Michigan State University Extension. https://midwestcovercrops.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017MCCC-Forage-Ehrhardt.pdf
7. Soil Building – Manures & Composts, USDA-AMS Grades and Standards for Organic Producers. https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/soil-building-manures-composts