Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Barbara Fischer" <cen12205@centurytel.net>]

Several reasons....feeding some grain is cheaper than buying alfalfa enough
to go around.  Also the corn in the grain feed helps keep the animals warm
as it produces heat.  Animals have to be watched close if only on alfalfa.
When I switch to alfalfa in the winter I do so gradually as you can cause
problems if you change feeds suddenly.  When selling goats I send along a
small bag if feed so they can mix it in with their feed for a couple of
days, helps switch over.  I also give probiosis when traveling with animals.
They also have better pasture here in AR in the summer than in the winter.
I have to buy alfalfa in MO and it is $5.00/bale....expensive in my book.  I
know of breeders out west that pay 2 or 3 times that.  If that were the case
here I would stop raising goats....couldn't afford it.

BArbara
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Alternative fuels on the farm


>
> So if you have to have silage or hay in the cold months, is that a
problem?
> Why do you have to feed grain in winter when they don't need it in the
warm
> months?
>
> If you google "grass fed beef " you'll find out.
> For example try
> http://www.americangrassfedbeef.com/natural-grass-farmers.asp
> http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/
> http://www.grasslandbeef.com/
>
> In "What About Grass-fed Beef?" this article
> http://www.foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm says
>
> Feeding grain to cattle has got to be one of the dumbest ideas in the
> history of western civilization. Cows, sheep, and other grazing animals
are
> endowed with the ability to convert grasses, which those of us who possess
> only one stomach cannot digest, into food that we can digest. They can do
> this because they are ruminants, which is to say that they possess a
rumen,
> a 45 or so gallon (in the case of cows) fermentation tank in which
resident
> bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.
>
> Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed beef, but in the United States today
> what is commercially available is almost all feedlot beef. The reason?
It's
> faster, and so more profitable. Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5
> years old at slaughter. Today, they are 14 or 16 months. You can't take a
> beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little
more
> than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein
> supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones.
> ----------------
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 7/15/2006 at 2:21 PM Barbara Fischer wrote:
>
> >How are you going to raise those livestock animals if you do not have
> >grains?  You might be able to have pasture year round in the south but
not
> >in the north.  You have to have silage, grain, and pasture to my way of
> >thinking.
> >
> >Barbara
> >----- Original Message ----- 
> >From: "Aliza" <aliza@jeffnet.org>
> >To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> >Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:06 PM
> >Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Alternative fuels on the farm
> >
> >
> >> Maybe this is too simplistic but wouldnt it make more sense for farms
to
> >go
> >> back to oxen and horses?  I know that it isnt as fast a way to farm but
> >at
> >> least the horses grow their own feed.  If we were in a no till pasture
> >based
> >> model (cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens etc) with raised vegetable
and
> >> grain beds the needs around energy are vastly reduced at least on the
> >farm.
> >>
> >> Speaking of grain - To me grain is one of the biggest drains in a farm
> >> system.  Going back to a farm system that includes little grain would
be
> >> vastly healthier as would going to food systems that use far less
grain.
> >> There is a mythology that grain for food is cheaper then eating meats
> but
> >I
> >> would think that eating meats and having dairy from notill pasture
> raised
> >> animals - cows, goats and sheep alike - would be a much smaller drain
on
> >> resources.  Anyone have any information about resources used for
pasture
> >> based meats and dairy as apposed to growing grains?
> >>
> >> Aliza
> >> who is looking in to making one of those maggot buckets for feeding
> >broilers
> >> this late summer.
> >>
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