milk seed

[Diane]

I wish! Fresh seed just outside the back door Still as you say there are problems with it too. With the birds taking any seed heads I miss, and the dogs chewing the guinea grass leaves, my birds are lucky they see any green seed.

[CQDude]

Lol, yeah I will have to walk a bit further when it dries out, I will be mowing the complex as soon as the rain stops, we mow about 25 acres around the sheds, silos and houses, still I'm sure I can walk 100m, lol.

[BENSONSAN]

Im the same as matt i buy it from ace colony my birds go ape s$%t for it. I rekon ive bred more birds from it aswell. Realy good stuff just put a cup of it in the aviary every now and then. its green french white millet.

[Misso]

Do ace colony have a website? What quantaties are they sold at? And rough prices? And finally do u know if they ship to Vic ??

[Alex]

Ace Colony charge $35/tub

Andrew Bird Palace in Smithfield charges $25 for the same thing.

(if I was bird shopping though I might be more inclined to shop at Ace).

[Diane]

I feed the soft green milky seed from inside the Johnston grass to the birds is this the milk seed everyone refers to, or is it any unripe seed?
Is milk seed and green panic the same thing?
Ive just got a price list from Australian Wildlife Supplies and Im thinking of ordering a kg of green panic. What Im wanting is more of the type similar to the green milky seed from the Johnston grass.

[Jayburd]

Milk seed is the unripened (still on the head) seed from red pannicum and 2 other seeds.
Harvested by Ray & Wendy Lowe in Qld, it is apparently 400 times more nutritional than normal dry seed.
I can see why it's so expensive!

[dano_68]

I feed the soft green milky seed from inside the Johnston grass to the birds is this the milk seed everyone refers to, or is it any unripe seed?
Is milk seed and green panic the same thing?
Ive just got a price list from Australian Wildlife Supplies and Im thinking of ordering a kg of green panic. What Im wanting is more of the type similar to the green milky seed from the Johnston grass.

Hi Di,

I buy all my seed from AWS. I always have green panic on hand and it drives the RFPFs nuts! As soon as I introduce it at the beginning of the season they start courting (ie: cockbird chasing the hen all of the place lol) within a week – no kidding! Also I would highly recommend Bambatsi, Carpet Grass and Phalaris. These are small seeds that all my birds relish. BTW, the green panic AWS sells is not milk seed, it is dry seed.

[mickw]

Milk seed is the unripened (still on the head) seed from red pannicum and 2 other seeds.
Harvested by Ray & Wendy Lowe in Qld, it is apparently 400 times more nutritional than normal dry seed.
I can see why it's so expensive!

Woo boy!...........a few posts ago, you were asking all about it ........a couple of quick google searches and you have all the facts....but a bit mixed up ......400 percent,..........when I went to school that translated to 4 times not 400 times ............shot seed is quoted as being around 300% (3 times) more nutitious than dry seed as long as its just the right amount of sprout..........like anything, there will be a bit of variation................sprouted seed is pretty good, green milk is somewhat better but its no panacea .............the big thing is that its easier.............especially for anyone with alot of birds.........there's still a whole lot of aviary management we have to get right

..........Green Milk seed is not a type of seed, but a stage of seed development....it just happens that the one main supplier does so with a couple of common types, White Millet, Red Pannicum and...?........Now if someone here has a good rule of thumb description of the right time for picking seed heads when they are at the "green milk" stage I'd be grateful.......I nailed it earlier this year with some wild green panic, froze it and the birds went off every time I fed it out........next time, they hardly touched it .......now I have green panic growing in each flight..........the Blue Faced Parrotys are hitting it before the spikes even unfold , the Parsons are waiting for theirs to ripen .....the WE Masks are somewhere in between ..................and my Purple Crowned Lorikeets are stealing all the white ants

[GregH]

I think I can clear up the "milkseed" issue. The milk that it's referring to is the milky stage of endosperm formation. Inside the "seed" it is actually liquid and white before cell walls form around the endosperm nuceli. In many grasses this stage occurrs in the first 5 days after fertilisation. Spiklets (flowers) on the panicle open consecutively from the top to the base over a period of 1-2 weeks depending on the species and size of the panicle. This means that not all the "seeds" on a panicle will be at the milky stage when you pick it. Some studies have shown that the food value of milkseed is the same as egg because the values are given for weight of protein as a proportion of dry matter. Of course your birds aren't eating it dry so it is much better than compared to the matured dry seed that is nearly all starch. All the seed's protein that is ever going to be in it is translocated into it during the first week and afterwards the accumulation of starch dilutes the protein. While the seed is still green and immature it is still a superior product for nestlings as the birds are able to more quickly assimilate it as it doesn't have to sit in the crop soaking and softening before it goes to the gizzard. Many studies of wild zebra finches and budgerigar show that breeding is triggered and sustained by the availability of green seed and it's probably the same for most granivorous birds.