Market Farming

["Bev and Chuck Henkel" <bchenkel AT conpoint.com>]

My impressions:

 

Hot weather moderates their appetite so it is hardly a problem in summer.

 

Short days/ long nights limit their food intake so it is hardly a problem in the fall.

 

Having them on dense legume/grass mixed sward, short active regrowth, pasture and moving them to a fresh spot very early in the day to take advantage of their more aggressive foraging time encourages greater pasture consumption/consequent less grain feed and lessens the problem in the early batches.  I've wondered for those of us without natural grit in the topsoil whether witholding grit might keep them a little plugged with grass so they eat a little less grain and avoid the heart failure, flip over deaths without the added chores of time limited feeding or the uncertainties of how much to feed them in quantity limited feeding.  Anybody tried that?

 

Chuck Henkel