Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>]

IIRC, bloat, comes from over eating of fresh greens when cattle are used to 
eating hay.

While I'm not a farmer, I have second cousins, that still work the family 
farm where my grandmother grew up,and other family in the same area, that 
run small dairy operations, and they say the time to watch for bloat, is in 
the spring, when the cattle have been used to eating cured hay all winter, 
and the new green growth ( of which alfalfa grows better than grass in cool 
temps ) is high in sugars and is like candy to cattle.    The digestive 
systems of cattle are just not used to fresh greens, and legumes which are 
easier to digest.    Being easier to digest, the fresh greens causes a rapid 
increase of gas bacteria, that causes gas faster than the animal can get rid 
of it.

They say that cattle kept on the range all winter, start feeding on a little 
greens as they start to grow, don't have the same problems with bloat, as 
cattle that have been fed hay all winter, then are turned loose on a pasture 
with allot of new green growth, because the cattle that stay on in winter 
are getting old coarse grasses as well as new fresh growth.


Greg H.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 12:04
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Cattle and water


> 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.