more info on the planting/harvesting

Ok here is what I am looking for in end results.

I would need a total of:

100 bu of Oats
40 bu of Wheat
10 bu of Sunflowers
30 bu of Corn


This would be enough feed to keep my chickens feed for one year.

Just a shot of the cuff estimate, how much seed would be needed and how much land to get this?

At least something to start with for numbers is what Im looking for, once I determine what breeds etc Im looking at I can nail it down to specifics.

Please guys?

Sunflowers are bought by elevators by pounds not bushels so I have no idea how many #'s of sunflowers are a bushel and I am too lazy to look

56 pounds of corn is 1 bushel typically new corn stock is 150-200 BU/A
60 pounds of wheat is 1 bushel no clue what you would average there probably 30 plus pretty easy.
Oats can't remember the conversion off the top of my head but I can tell you right now wheat and oats growing in the same area spells disaster for disease.....

Ok,

How far apart would the oats and wheat need to be?

Or should I just plant all oats and forget about the wheat?

conversion charts for grains

http://cattlecorner.com/conversions/bushels.htm

another one

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html

how to's

http://www.heirloom-organics.com/guide/va/guidetogrowingwheat.html

What is the purpose of the wheat and or oats in your ration?

Simply feed for the chickens.

I was using the scratch grains bag ingredients as a guide.

I know you can founder horses with to much oats, but I dont think that can happen with chickens.

Soybeans would be a better choice than almost everything you have listed. They have a higher protein content and you can mix it with just about anything as a meal. I would look at strictly soybeans and sunflowers for your application (corn will make white feathers have a yellowish tint). I noticed you said you wanted to have non gmo's and that would eliminate any soybeans if you want to guarantee any sort of yield year after year. Soybeans are also a legume and will produce nitrogen and I am going to go out on a limb and say you have a mollisol soil and typically either Nitrogen or Phosphorus is limiting. How much space do you have for this little adventure....

Im not interested in feeding soybeans to the chickens.

I would simply stick with what I have been feeding them in that case.

Also I would need to cook the beans before I could feed them to the birds, to eliminate the growth retardant thats in raw beans.

As far as soil around here, its a heavy soil with clay in it.

Have no idea about the mineral content of it.

Right now I dont have any real land available to me, i have a neighbor that I could rent a few acres from and plant it on that.

Also for the same protein content I could raise field peas vs soybeans.

Ive had my fill of soybeans, Im not at all convinced they are the "safe" food they have been touted to be, especially the current crop of engineered stuff they are selling now.

Here is what I have found for protein percentages of the various feeds

Corn 10%
Wheat 17%
Oats 13%
Barley 13%
Millet 12%
Peas(field)24%
Flax 23%
Buckwheat 11%
Sunflowers 32%

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but about anything you eat is a GMO anymore (I want to say 60 percent of all food in the grocery store). You can actually measure your daily intake of glyphosphate which is the active ingredient in round up. People completely overreact to BT staked genetics especially with RR products. It will take a larger dose of roundup to kill you than regular table salt. It has a very short half life typically with just a few weeks. Over 99 percent or corn and soybeans produced in the U.S. has some sort of bt stacked genes in it. Monsanto also just released a RR version of sweet corn. The real problem isn't human consumption it is resistance that weeds build up to them such as roundup ready....kochia is already very adapted to it. Also I am definitely not a huge advocate of spraying and no till systems as their are much better systems but they are also more labor intensive.

If you want to go organic to help the environment that isn't a very good case. Organic production requires more labor and in turn produces more carbon byproducts that conventional methods. Some of the certification methods for being organic are also pretty shady at best and are not hard to meet.....

I am also going to call BS on the wheat protein content it seems awfully high to me. Field Peas would be an OK alternative but their isn't going to be quite as high of a protein content of soybeans.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/94/feeding-chickens-for-best-health-and-performance

I am well aware of how much gmo crap we are forced to eat nowadays.

I would venture to guess that with all the other "preservatives" and "helpful" items they package in food is why we as a nation are getting sicker.

I am simply trying to grow some feed that isnt modified and can be stored and replanted and not rely on the "supply" chain.

I may be an idiot for wanting to try and use some of the old ways, even if it is in this one little area.

Perhaps Im going organic here, but I would rather call it traditional.

Im well aware that by going this way it will be more labor intensive. So what, I have PLENTY of time on my hands these days.

As far as carbon, I say prove to me that we humans caused the last warm up where greenland was actually habitable and I'll consider this greenhouse nonsense as a theory.

I guess Ill just keep looking, and thanks for the debate and info.