No-Till Pasture Overseeding with Chickens

We move our chickens on a two-day cycle. For this experiment, each time they arrive on new grass, I broadcast handfuls of seeds on the ground. The birds are, of course, naturally well-adapted to finding and eating seeds, so some portion is inevitably lost to consumption. These seeds might even be considered the wages owed to the chickens for their planting labor. But the losses have influenced my decisions on the varieties I use, since allowing the poultry to eat expensive seeds doesn’t make financial sense. Fortunately, enough seeds escape the notice of their beady eyes and are stomped down and coated with manure. When the grass is long, the chickens seem to be able to find fewer seeds, but a surprising amount gets past them even when they’re moving through shorter pastures.

Although we haven’t attempted rigorous scientific methods in our research, we’ve run side-by-side chicken coops to compare results. For our control coop, we simply moved the chickens in their normal pattern without any over-seeding. For our experimental coop, we broadcast seeds during each chicken move. Without actually cutting and weighing biomass, our eyeball estimates based on plant height and density showed a twofold gain for the experimental group at six weeks after the chicken grazing.

Seeds for Pasture Overseeding by Chicken

What follows are my findings for no-till seeding using chickens. My observations are all based on my climate and conditions. Our soils are sticky, dense clays; we’re often more challenged by rain than by drought; and our summers typically include only a few weeks with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, our farm is Certified Organic, so we have some constraints on the availability of seeds and varieties.

We tested the following seeds with this method of no-till seed starting with pastured chickens:

• Corn
• Japanese Millet
• Daikon Radishes
• ‘Barkant’ turnips
• Annual ryegrass
• Forage peas

Corn

I’ve used both whole-kernel feed corn and ungraded open-pollinated ‘Wapsie Valley’ corn. Both have a decent take rate, although the chickens eat probably 75% of it. I tried open-pollinated corn because it’s supposedly less likely to tassel when planted in sparse stands. The ungraded corn isn’t too much more expensive than the bin run corn, but given the amount consumed, it might be worthwhile to stick exclusively to broadcasting feed-grade kernels. It’s a good seeding option from late May through July, when the soil is warm enough for good germination and there’s sufficient time for stalk growth. I’ve observed that young turkeys are less likely to eat corn kernels than chickens are, so this might be most effective for my early-season batches of turkeys.

Japanese Millet

The seed is small enough that the birds don’t eat much of it. Germination is poor when seeded in early spring, but mid-June and July seem to be the ideal planting times. Planting in August or later doesn’t give it enough time to develop. When we have stretches of hot, dry weather, the millet grows better than the other plants. Unfortunately, the plant loses palatability rapidly in fall, so it seems to have a narrow window of grazing usefulness in our climate.

Daikon Radishes

These are superstars in terms of biomass potential. They germinate better than any other of the plants I broadcast, and a little seed goes a long way. The cattle readily graze the tops, but I haven’t been able to get them to eat the roots. But even if the roots aren’t useful as forage, I appreciate the idea of planting crops with profile diversity (i.e., ones that’ll grow upward as well as downward).

‘Barkant’ Turnips

These are similar to the radishes, but I’ve observed a lower germination rate over the past two years. Interestingly, the turnip greens are one of the last things the cattle will eat until the weather turns cold, and then the plants become more popular. Also, as long as they have good green plants to eat, the cattle ignore the turnip roots.

Annual Ryegrass

I’ve been mixing this into seed batches, because I’ve always found that this works well on bare patches of dirt. But I’m having a hard time finding any evidence of germination when broadcasting it with the chickens. It might be that ryegrass just can’t compete with the other plants.
Oats. Oats are low-cost compared with the other seeds. They’re not as appealing to the chickens as corn, and they have a solid germination rate. Oats do a great job of filling in bare spots, and the green plants are palatable to cattle, so this has become a constant in my seed mixes.

Forage Peas

Peas germinate reasonably, but they’ve consistently failed to grow vigorously in our pastures. They seem to have a hard time competing in a diverse plant mix, so most of the specimens I find are wispy. At this point, I’m not inclined to continue broadcasting pea seeds.

Do Chickens Improve Soil?

Ultimately, I can’t say with certainty that the project is beneficial across the board. I’m growing more biomass, so that’s a positive. The labor costs are minimal, requiring just one minute per chicken coop at each move, so the added work is inconsequential. But the seed costs can easily jump into the hundreds of dollars, particularly with the more expensive varieties, so while I’m gaining some grazing for the cattle, I don’t think it’s enough to fully offset the seed cost. With some optimization and by focusing on a simple mix of inexpensive seeds, I think this aspect could at least break even.

Measuring the value to soil health becomes especially tricky. Because our chicken coops move around from year to year, I can’t do long-term soil sampling to understand what would change over time. But I’m inclined to continue, because I like seeing the mix of annuals and perennials growing in the pastures. My new goal is to trim the costs by settling on a simpler two- or three-seed mixture.

Dave Perozzi is a farmer at Wrong Direction Farm in central New York, where he and his family raise chickens, turkeys, and beef cattle.

Originally published as “Firsthand Reports” in the April/May 2024 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.