Lesser known fodder plants: Job's tears

[EddieSalita]

Hi,

I thought I would introduce some lesser known fodder plants those who like to add variety might be interested in. I did a quick search and didn't see this one,
My general rules for such things in the chook run are perennial, fast growing, nutritious, hardy, easy to propagate.

Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is the wild variety of this ancient grass. It grows to 3ft under ideal conditions in my subtropical climate. It's not at all fussy. It can be cut and will regrow readily. Up to 6 cuts per year is very doable.
It gets numerous pea sized grains which when mature have a very hard outer shell. However that causes my chickens (australorp and rhode Island red) no problem, their crops seem up to the task. Poops claim complete digestibility. I remember reading somewhere this is an ancient ancestor of modern corn/maize.
This grain is still used today in many countries as food, drink and ornamental. I'll leave checking that out to you.
My chooks love the leaves of this plant also. They are quite a tender leaf. Not fibrous, easy to peck. They will of course kill it if given enough time, it is pretty tenacious in its desire to shoot back up. Being a taller broad leaf grass, if I put it in a mesh top grazing box a foot or so high, it persists almost indefinitely. Or you can grow it outside the run and just cut it off a few inches high, throw it to the chooks and let it regrow.
It's has quite a range of amino acids. Including methionine. The grain protien is about 15%. I imagine the plant itself is about the same. Much like any grass.
Anyway, i find it great, the chooks love it. And collecting seed and propagating it is a piece of cake.

Links:

https://www.feedipedia.org/node/12217
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job's_tears

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Believe it or not, this stuff is actually low Lysine. (which is ok, you likely get your Lysine from other sources), and like corn, it is very low protein - so while it has a high Met ratio relative to other Aminos, its very low total overall protein level means this is not a great way to improve Met levels overall. As an addition to your forage/pasture or for sprouting trays, sure!

Also and no, the plant is FAR less nutritionally valuable than the seed, because it contains FAR more moisture. Seeds are often around 90% dry matter, 10% water. Plants are usually around 85% water (or more), 15% useful stuff - making seeds about 6x more nutritionally dense on average than green matter. The AA concentrations tend to be different as well, though how exactly varies too much for gross generalizations.

PFAF summary, USDA Hardiness zones 8-11

 

[EddieSalita]

I certainly don't recommend it it as a primary fodder. As you mention it's a forage/pasture addition.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I certainly don't recommend it it as a primary fodder. As you mention it's a forage/pasture addition.

Also, thank you - I'm zone 8a, and haven't decided what to throw at my pasture this year to increase its diversity. Its worth considering.

 

[EddieSalita]

No worries. Diversity is everything.

I was going to do a post on desmanthus virgatus as well. I kinda thought its not as uncommon though. If you haven't heard of it and are after something for multi species pasture and grazing with higher protien, it's worth a look. There are a number of excellent commercial cultivars available in Australia at least.

https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/pastures/Html/Desmanthus.htm

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes, I have my acres of weeds.

 

[JungleFamilyPanama]

Wow Eddie, The fact that your chickens eat the seed is stunning and amazing. I have been growing coix lacryma-jobi for the last several years and my chickens and ducks refuse it unless absolutely starving. They will initially pick it up in their bill, then drop it. I went so far as to take old broody birds before culling and locked them up with only coix seeds for a few days then examined their gizzard after slaughter and found only partially ground coix seeds and very few of them. I have been trying to grow the soft shelled ma-yuen variety for a few years but it just limps along growing a few feet tall and producing a few seeds while the hard-shelled wild type has grown 20ft tall and produced abundant seed heads. The seeds are a pain to harvest since they ripen one by one on long stalks and my attempts at hulling them efficiently have failed. If I harvest and grind the seeds the chickens will happily peck through the mix for the grain pieces but this is too labor intensive. My pigs do eat the seeds whole, and this is why I keep it in my taro field where the pigs rotationally graze.

Are you absolutely sure your chickens swallow the seeds? Do all the birds in your flock do it? Do they go for the green ones or the mature seeds?

Have you seen geese eat the seeds? I know they have a stronger gizzard.

Any ideas on how to use this plant would be much appreciated as it took over my taro field and I have about 1/2ha of the stuff now.

 

[EddieSalita]

I've seen them swallow they seeds numerous times. So unless they are regurgitating them elsewhere I assume they are eating them. I do try to ensure maximum crop health in my birds. They have a diverse free range forest to forage in.
They eat the green blades in quality also. Most young coix struggle to mature unless free of chicken pressure.
It's a first class cover crop, weed suppressor, green mulch and soil conditioner also. So it's worth having for that reason alone.
I have had no luck growing the soft variety either. The wild form is near infinitely sturdy. So I gave up.
I don't know about geese. I do always have a variety of decomposed granite which they often pick at. Maybe this is a superior grit material for a gizzard compared to oyster shell? Idk.

When mine get 4-6 foot high I usually slash and drop it about a foot high. It just regrows. Such a great plant.

If it's invasive, I advise either crimping it for green mulch, or just slashing it. Taro should out compete crimped coix I would have thought.

Maybe it would be good silage? It's a limited use commercial crop in its own right. So perhaps there is an opportunity there?