Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Maybe alfalfa varies depending on how it's fertilized or other factors like
the breed of cattle. The cattlemen I've talked with are real cowboys,
horses, spurs, and fixing fence. Anyway, what you've described is a more
sustainable home farm, and if we were rid of the feedlots and had a lot
more home farms living that way we'd be better off with our water, land,
and our health. Thank you for a classic example.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about
it. 
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/21/2006 at 3:22 PM Fargir@aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 6/21/2006 1:10:05 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
>tradingpost@riseup.net writes:
>
>My  statement was "alfalfa hay *normally* isn't fed directly to  cattle".
>Where'd I get that? From old ranchers of course.  They'd  bloat and die,
>like eating too much clover. 
>
>
>    I had to come out of lurk mode to reply to that  statement. I am a
>Iowa 
>farm girl-- (now about 30 years off the farm but still go  "home" to the 
>farmstead. Mom is 87 but still living on the farm with the help of  my
>brother :-} ) 
>Dad raised Hereford cattle, just a small herd of 25,  top.
>During winter, ALL the cattle were fed, was alfalfa hay and some corn on 
>the 
>cob.  The ONLY time that we worried about bloat was early spring and  they

>would get through the fence into the  corn.
>    Dad did rotation farming and the cattle were a  vital part of it.  The

>crop land was rotated by 1. alfalfa with a nurse  crop of oats, first
>year. 2- 
>grass pasture after the alfalfa died out, 3 -corn 4  soybeans(kept his own

>seed). , Then start over again
> 
>   The rotation of the different crops broke the weed/ insect  cycle and
>with 
>addition of livestock "waste" and the nitrogen fixing of the  soybeans the

>fertilizer problem was solved.
>By plowing under the pasture the organic fiber was also added.
>    Without livestock, none of this would have been  possible.  Dad had
>his 
>own small stockyard to feed out the cattle. He fed  alfalfa hay and  corn
>on 
>the cob, that he fresh hammer milled,   to fatten.  The last 2-3 weeks,
>molasses 
>was added to make them shine and  add the last few lbs. His beef was
>"famous" 
>for being the best tasting beef  around.  
>    When it came time for the five  kid to go to  collage, Dad just put a
>few 
>more calves in the feedlot and paid  our tuition  with them . 
>     I have problems with the idea that there should  not be any cattle or

>livestock on a farm.  Yes, there are problems and  abuse possible , when
>done 
>without care, BUT livestock can be an intricate  and necessary part of 
>sustainable farming
>Peggy
>
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