Growing sorghum

beatie · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:42 am **Posts:** 5

Anyone grow sorghum for feeding their fowls? if anyone does can you tell me when is best to harvest a small crop when they are pale or dark red?

OakA · **Posted:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:27 pm

Most sorghums darken in the seed as it matures and ripens.
I know oats is nutricious when at the milky stage and not yet ripe, with sorghum I'm not sure, some sorghum varieties are high in prussic acid which is harmful to some livestock species until over a certain height or wilted before feeding.
I grow Nutra Feed for all my animals, it is a sorghum hybrid that is quick to establish and recover after grazing or cutting and it has a height and growth pattern similar to oats , which means I can have a green feed in oats through winter/spring and the sorghum hybrid over summer as you can't plant it until the soil temp reaches 19 deg.
I have considered Sugar Graze as an additional summer crop that stands over into autumn and early winter getting sweeter and more palatable as it matures and ripens.
For the fowls I grow pop corn (white or yellow), also strawberry corn (red ) and a similar small cob corn that is blue in colour, all of these have a small grain and cob and the fowls love them. Something else to consider.

beatie · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:42 am **Posts:** 5

Thats great cheers I will look up pop corn and strawberry corn as I want something new to get growing

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

Um hate to tell you this but chickens don't really like sorghum. They'll avoid it unless its the only thing left to eat.

OakA · **Posted:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 7:14 pm

Sorry to contradict you Andrew but mine seek it out first unless there is corn also in the mix.
Because I limit the amount of corn, sorghum is used in a grain mix at 25% by weight, it contributes the yellow pigment to the feed mix.
Some frown on it as a slow poison and will never feed it, mine have had sorghum as a corn substitute for years and no ill effects or health issues.
The sorghum is readily consumed before even wheat.
That is my experience anyway.

beatie · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:42 am **Posts:** 5

Yes ours eat it also but do seem to prefer the wheat it seems, so can I please clarify you use 25% in your mix? I was thinking of similar but never mixed before

OakA · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:49 am

My grain mix is 25% Soghum,25% cracked corn & 50% wheat, this I use mixed with a 16% protien Layer/breeder pellet at a rate of 50:50, so I guess in the scheme of things the sorghum is cut to 12.5% in total for the layers, breeders & ducks.
The young stock have turkey starter alone and later turkey grower mixed at a rate of 25% grain mix (as an incentive to scratch and forage) and 75% turkey grower.
Because I have the Malay game and other Asiatic standard fowls I use the turkey feed for the higher protien content that they require for growth.
The turkey starter also doubles for my meat quail and the grain mix doubles for a 50/50 mix with pigeon peas for the meat pigeons.
Just to fill you in I also have meat rabbits and these get a horse pellet and chaff, both of which are here as part of the ration for my dairy goats.
My point is instead of having a specific feed for each species I have "generic" mixes that can be utilised for more than one feed mixture.
The grain mix forms a larger portion of the ration for growing Runner ducks to avoid them becoming course from an oversupply of protien, a few bantams I have also get a higher proportion of grain mix to avoid them becoming to big in the growth stages, there after they have the layer breeder mix when mature and in the breeding pens.
This is just a feeding regime that I have found works for me, another breeder in another area with different circumstances may well feed a completely different mix of grains and other foods.

beatie · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:42 am **Posts:** 5

Thanks for such detail very helpful

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

That is indeed good news, maybe NSW sorghum is more palatable than Qld sorghum?

OakA · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:01 pm

Andrew,
Maybe because down here in some places it is called "milo", maybe they think they are eating chocolate.

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Growing sorghum

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