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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Alternative fuels on the farm

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Fargir@aol.com
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Alternative fuels on the farm
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 17:44:47 EDT

>Why do you have to feed grain in winter when they don't need it in the warm
months? <

depends on the temps and shelter for the animals and the ability of the
animal to "winter over". Also the cost of hay verses
grain. It may be cheaper to feed a small amount of grain plus hay verses
straight hay.

>> 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.


If you are talking about working animals, horse or oxen, one needs to feed
grain, summer or winter because of the work time. If the animal is working
it does not have enough time to graze, sleep and maintain weight on just
grass/ hay. The energy that the human is asking it to expend is far larger
than
what it would , if it was living the"natural" life.
As for going back to using draft animals, I am neither pro or con. Yes
it is energy saving at first glance but, but if I remember correctly, the
average Iowa farm used about 1/3 of it's crop land to feed the horses that
were
used to work the land. The percentage may be off....hay, it has been many
years from my high school class! But I do know it was a large percent.
One of the con reasons against "mandatory" use of draft animals is the
history of abuse because of it. People who used animals because they had
to,
not want to, tended to use what ever method to get the work done. Correct,
humane or not, They just wanted the beast to pull the whatever. Read
"Black
Beauty" for information on this.
Wether one does no till or more contentional ways of crop farming, the
farmer will still need more than man power to work and move the crop,
therefor the need to raise grain for feed to feed the work animals or the
use of
fuels. " There is no shouse thing as a free lunch" I wish there were :-(

Peggy




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