Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Fargir@aol.com]

>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