Does anyone raise pasture for turkeys?

[beccaWA]

I will probably also post this on BYC, which I'm also a member of, but I thought that there must be many of you who know a lot about pasture. I'm on the dry side of Washington state, high plateau geography. Four seasons.

What would you suggest for pasture for turkeys? I've seen orchard grass and sometimes alfalfa suggested. Your thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings @beccaWA and welcome to BYH. Sorry I can't help with your question, and you're probably right... you' might get better info over on BYC, but you never know! A lot of the folks here are also over on BYC so You never know! Hope you find an answer that works for you. Since you're on the high/dry side of WA, it might be better to approach it from "what will grow best here" and then go from that angle.

 

[Bossroo]

Can you tell us a description of your property, available acreage for this pasture, soils,topagraphy, rain / irrigation water, temperatues, available shelters, fencing, trees, goals for the project, number of turikeys etc. that will give us a clue as to your needs. Where we used to live near Davis, Cal. there is a turkey grower that raises about 500 turkeys per year on 2 acres which is planted in Sudan grass that grows to 5 ft tall. This grass provides shade for the birds and provides a snack of insects and a mouthfull of greens. The main source of feed is commercial feed in self serve feeders along with waterers spread out throughout the "pasture".

 

[Southern by choice]

Look at the rest of your land first.
Turkeys, like chickens are NOT vegetarians and actually eat very little grass. Their main source of food is bugs!
Our turkeys range all over the land and the number one place they go is the woods. When they do come up and into the fields they still aren't eating grass, they are going for the bugs.
The expense to grow pasture for turkeys when it isn't even their true food source is financial doom.

 

[JACB Dorper]

Heel low:

I will probably also post this on BYC, which I'm also a member of, but I thought that there must be many of you who know a lot about pasture. I'm on the dry side of Washington state, high plateau geography. Four seasons.

What would you suggest for pasture for turkeys? I've seen orchard grass and sometimes alfalfa suggested. Your thoughts?

Thanks!

A most enjoyable TREAT (and even our domesticated geese require supplementation tho much better subsistence on pasture than most poultry species)...GRASSES, forage crops, weeds (not poisonous; our nasties are Death Camas and Locoweed...blah...dig em out, check periodically they don't come back & jump on the resurgence quick). We purchase human grade cases of romaine lettuce in our WHITE season here in the Great White North for our poultry. Not at all because it is nutritional...but because it brings joy and amusement. Something greatly to be said about happy factors when you want happy meat and happy eggs. We have ancient creatures here along with zero predation...hate suffering any upheavals and wrongful deaths...LMBO I blame moi for anything that predators ate...MY fault for breaking with that duty of care towards what we choose to keep.

Speaking of such, you become a keeper of the dirt and plant matter...needs of that have to come first and foremost if'n you want to sustain the Land properly. Contained domestics will happy ruin the area they are held in...and look all forlorn and miserable because, well some one messed in their sand pit & turned it into a dessert or mud pie festival...yeh, sure! I watch weather forecasts, the skies, historical experiences...to know when and if what we keep should be out and about for the day, eh. Don't feel ONE shred of guilt keeping things locked up if'n forecast is for hail later in the day and I know I won't be able to herd everyone back home inside in time to avoid that the "sky is falling!" Love having crap out but not at the expense of the good well being of my dirt and growthful coverings. Good smarts for you to inquire about what to grow for grasses for your turkeys.

All our poultry adores time out on pasture pending weather conditions suit it...pheasants get small clippings (keep in mind, long picked grasses may impact a crop...so non-treated grass clippings are a fun treat for them & others) inside their quarters, now the mega numbers of chickens, geese, ducks, swans, Ruddy Shels (not a goose, not a duck-so how about a guck or a doose?), and them turk-a-lurks. One finds beasts and birds that harvest their own foods/treats to be the most efficient use of resources. Anything you ain't baling, stacking, hauling, re-stacking, keeping outta the elements, etc... equates smart use of resources. Plus too is that turkeys out on pasture (pending you have covered all risks of predation! Eeek... ), is it is healthful for us to provide exercise opportunities for our domestics, washing down turkey plops to fertilize the land is a bonus, and then thars that factory farm missing factor. More dark meat, more movement, not sitting stuffing faces and getting uselessly mushy meated tastlessly plumped up. Meat that was happy to move about in the real world (squishing dirt between its toes and chasing bugs, sucking in sunshine, warm breezes, and naps under the shade trees--we all should be so lucky to have lived in a world where the meaning of life is jest THAT) tastes by far the bestest!

As a kid with a limited chook run, I would grow grass under netting...when it poked its heads (ah...leaves) up past the protective wire, the chooks would nip it off but if those docile chickens were allowed full access to that peewee small area of growing grass...them birds would scratch and dig out the roots and what took weeks to grow, gone in one day, eh!

So so long as you realize that pasture land is not a replacement for foods but treat time (happy time, joy time...and a joyous happy bird is a less STRESSED bird...stress invites in disease and you'll find HAPPY BIRDS = HEALTHY birds--get me?), I'd say whatever you spy growing out in people's lawns is what you choose. Give it a go and what grows, there's yer answer. I mean I grow tomats in my greenhouse because we get frost and snow (yeh, snow) in every month of the year... (August 2001, two inches of snow)...but less than a ten minute drive East of us, they have a week on either side of the season MORE than us for growing. Go figure. Micro climates, eh.

An established pasture on your dirt sorts itself out. What lives, lives, what dies, is a waste of re-seeding for unless your year is a great change from normal ones. Always exceptions...always something to throw a wing into your ding.

That be oats coming in...sweet!​

The whole grains I bought this year, one was SEED OATS...well you gotta know I was sunk on giving it a go. Seven 5-gallon buckets hand cast (and it was and is a wet year this one) on to tilled up dirt, did up a section of like 80'/70' by 100 feet of land. In the past, this piece has been seeded up by composted bird bedding and sheep barn cleanings being tilled in my our roto off the tractor. I harvested clumps of oats, speeding ahead of my Jacob flock who would eat the tops (seeds, gone to seed by then) and ignore the bottoms. I harvested the clumps (tedious WOmanly labours), stored them clumps in an empty barn half (geriatric, 13+ year old woolers have now been joined by hairy Dorpers, so there goes the excess BARN spaces), and I would swing by and take a clump per goose pen...for fall time treats. I find that keeping your domestics birds entertained during our deep, deep, ten month (joshing!) long winters a challenge, so giving out greens (not for feed, but for fun) is for happy factors. Gives them a reason to wanna live...dullness and boredom...gone if you got GREENS to look forward to.

In the past, when pure alfalfa squares could be found...I would purchase a square or three per pen and that was hoisted into bird pens for amusement. Won't freeze, spoil in our roofed in buildings and gave the birds something to pick at.

Lilac turkey hens and Australian Cattle Dogs​

We feed so many critters that are happy nip grasses...(sheep, goats, llamas, dogs, the poultry) we have gone more towards what thrives gets to grow here. All the abuse dished out, what lives makes more of itself. Good thing.

You'll note, both canines and meleagris gallopavo are grazing on greens...​

Lookin' out at my grasses, or at the very least the GREEN growth...got bromes, fescues (sheep fescue special seeding), timothy (hate that...seed heads get messed up in Jacob fleeces...matted burrish BLAH!), kentucky blue grass, lots of clovers, dandelions, plantain, etc.

Sept 5, 2015 GREEN growth - compliments of turkey composted poo & oat straw bedding...WOOT!​

We're a grey wooded soil here and we have been putting back to the Land all the varied living creature soiled bedding we can muster. Great for the Veg Garden too.

​

I believe the more important point to mention about pasture for turkeys is that you keep it clipped and tender...tempting and delicious.

This is LoREDa and she (yes with a beard!) is our first Lilac - June 2008
​

What our poultry that graze enjoy is a short clip (healthy grasses compete and squeeze out weeds well--we use no weed & feed crapola...natural or get lost!). Tender grasses that are not tough and when they are short to wander about on--tis a good thing. Not tripping or sloughing thru brush height grass...

July 8, 2013 - Black Pearl & Fire Ember​

I was doing a bitta fencing (like housework, you ever done like dinner...think not!), and the two pens we imported from the Southern States in 2013 decided the dogs and I were having jest a bit of too much fun...come see what we were doing....come find us...

Periscopes UP! (funny; 3 years ago today--time flies by when having FUN)​

This is WAY too tall a grass...duh...


And whenever it gets going too much (lots of moisture and coolish temps this July), then I call in the big guns and will tie high and stake out a goat to do the brute force clip. This week, Heidi here is thinning out that grass I photoed with the dogs and Lilac hens...

Heidi the Nigerian Dwarf Dairy doe​

That or when my Hero asks me "What place needs mowing next?" I'll legislate the turkey grass in front of their enclosed run gets done. He'll give the clippings to the flocks in their night corrals and we have a large system of composting...replenishing the Earth we are blessed to own here. Grass clippings are one of THE best nutrient replenishers for things like veg gardens and bald spots on yer lawns.

Ruminants will happily clip any forage meant for turks that gets too long...pasture rotation for many is to combo graze...birds go in, followed by ruminants--parasites are not shared so eggs picked up are not living onwards. In our Pear-A-Dice goose/swan/ruddy runs, when the grasses get outta hand, we call in the sheep flocks and then my spouse mechanically mows it all up to one size. And we start the process all over again...until like August where we should have the heat (39C/102F) that beats down the grass growth EXPLOSIONS.

You'll find this all an excuse to have more KINDS of dependents so do be careful how this goes...what the turks can't handle, maybe we need a herd of goats or flock of sheeps...to keep up with this VALUEABLE resources...next thing you know, yer a farm...oh the shame, eh...

Keep it FUN, eh!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[JACB Dorper]

Heel low:

I have taken some photos of my non-grassish plants and some of our grasses...hoping this assists you with your choices in turkey pasture forages.

NON-GRASSES

Our provincial flower is the wild rose...funny in that as most the ruminants we have here (sheep, goat, llamas) delight in killing this off, browsing it down to where it really has issues...but nope, not a turkey choice...so safe to let it thrive where they might be...but not where the ruminants may go a wandering.

​

Lookin' IN on the bird yard lawns July 2015​

So back to what turkeys might and may graze upon...nip and pluck, eat and forage for... BTW, turks love grapes...and raisons too.

Here are some plants WE happen to have on the grow here...the non grass types.

- Alfalfa or Lucerne

- Pineappleweed or wild chamomile or disc mayweed (Matricaria discoidea)
- Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Plaintain (Plantago major)
- Red clover (Trifolium pratense)
- White clover (Trifolium repens)
- Dandelion (Taraxacum)


These are some of the grasses' seed heads I picked and clicked...on July 9, 2016.

- Timothy-grass (Phleum pratense)
- Creeping Red Fescue (Festuca rubra)
- Perennial Rye-grass (Lolium perenne)
- Sheep Fescue or Hard Fescue (Festuca ovina)
- Glacier Brand Orchard-grass (Dactylis glomerata L.)
- Brome-grass (Bromus inermis L.)
- Troy Kentucky Bluegrass or Smooth/Common Meadow-grass (Poa pratensis)

NOTE please...Now I be no way any bitta an expert on identification of grasses...I still be a learnin' (not dead yet... ) so corrections on moi IDing above are most welcome so I, too, can keep learnin'!!!


I have planted grasses which came in a blend of this (Common No. 1 Forage Mixture):

50% Fleet Meadow Brome-grass
25% Glacier Brand Orchard-grass
10% Survivor Alfalfa
10% Boreal Creeping Red Fescue
5% Troy Kentucky Bluegrass

Not sayin' that this is the only things that came up in our pastures, but when you seed for this, you expect that some of the stuff you got on the grow on your land would be this...


We are getting rain every day, and thunderstorms...have for weeks now...the pastures are just brimming and my ruminants cannot keep up never mind the turks...

We have 20 pasture areas where we graze our ruminants, most permanently fenced but we also employ two lengths of 160 foot electronetting and my portable battery run charger. We have ten grazing areas outside (ditches are mowed to reduce risk of fire hazard from a tossed cigarette-tho this year, kinda too wet to happen fur now).

This is what seven Hair Sheeps grazed for us in three days on the area (160 feet of netting around and down to the permanent perimeter fence thar). My Hero then goes in (I picked rocks and got one of those large carts fulla rocks so we don't ruin mower blades--rocks go to fill in for where we are building a vehicle garage...nothing, I mean nuthun goes to waste here...hee hee...well OK, booberry pie may go to my waist but I digress...).


I found this link quite helpful in identifying pasture grasses...fur beef and outta Ontario, but hey (hay?), seemed like a good place to begin learnin' up what grasses do well and the why's how's, etc.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/beef/facts/06-095.htm


So as mentioned, the turkey area was getting way overgrown for the turkeys to keep at bay...so brought in the big guns...the geriatric Jacob ruminants to make the big assault on the small area, get her mowed up and beat back...

Baa...we be here...now let us WORK on this!​

"Hmmmm"...sound of sheep mowers...doing what they do best...MOW MOW MOW the greens!​

So this be the turkey "pasture" or forages outside the one turk-a-lurky pen.

How good is the grazing in this small turkey green area for them sheeps...well Regina figures its gotta be "lip licking" delicious, eh!

Rex loves this bitta work...grand ol' working wether!!​

So job got done like dinner...this is the turkey green...post the Jacobs after one day.

Now my Hero comes in, mows this up riding on his red ridem' mower... this clipped up makes one of THE most bestest items to spread as mulch for grass or in the garden or...just lovely stuff and sometimes if'n its tres green, he spoils the ruminants by dumping some in their corrals---oh yeh, the PRE-chewed grassy delish...silly silly.

This is the area in front of the turkey green area and it has been mowed by hair sheeps and then mowed by the Yard Maintenance Man...and now left to do some more growing before that cycle begins up again.

Right next to the turkeys is the bird yard...this is basically a pasture that has been manicured into a lovely green bowling type lawn. The birds (from swans to geese, to ducks to chooks & a pair of geriatric turks), ALL of them adore the time out when weather allows on these lawns...same mix as the turkey run, just more finely manicured I guess. After my bevies are out on it for the day, I spend about a half hour with the garden hose washing down the birdle plops...maintenance to keep it all nice and green or the grasses UNDER that poop would be smothered and die. Same type maintenance would be done for turkey flock on pasture if you want it to stand up to soiling very well. Blast of the hose (rain never seems to hit hard enough to dissipate it).

I'm on the dry side of Washington state, high plateau geography. Four seasons.

I see we are in Zone 1 according to "lawngrass dot com" ... so I suppose we do share some of the same kinda climate status...

This may also assist you...

http://lawngrass.com/states/washington.html

Recommended Grass For Washington Lawns

Kentucky Bluegrass, Bentgrass and Fine Fescues are commonly found throughout Washington. Turf-Type perennial Rye grasses are also commonly used as a component of a mixture. Sometimes perennial ryegrass is used as a stand alone lawn grass in western portions of Washington. All of these grasses have good performance records throughout the state.

This pasture (1/4 of Ram Pasture pictured) has been worked (composted bedding tilled in) for several years now...has had one grazing and is ready for a new crew to get mowing her in.

I would consider this to be BIRD palatable too. Lookin quite like a green salad, eh!

This is where my hand sewn oats is at now...I look forward to feeding clumps of it I harvest by hand as great supplementals for all our poultry. Happiness factors = happy birds = happy meat/eggs...tastes outta this world, eh!

​

Thing about caring about the welfare and enjoyment of life in the beasts & birds you raise is that you may plain and simply TASTE the love & resources you devote and lavish upon them. Rewards like that make light the toils and trials to give them the best you are able...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada