|
|
Kick the Feed Bag Habit
February 3, 2011
With the announcement of deregulated GE alfalfa spreading around the various livestock communities, many folks are wondering for the first time how they can go about raising their own feed. After all, the vast majority of small scale livestock owners have been working out of a feed bag for the past 50 years if not more. Yet that is not the norm for the bulk of small family farming history. It used to be very commonplace for folks to either raise their own feed on their own place, or partner with neighbors to raise feed in exchange for meat, dairy, eggs and other livestock products. If there is a silver lining to this whole GE nonsense, it would be that small scale producers are once again looking at how to provide their own feed.
But how? For most of us, our feed comes in only a few forms - baled hay, bagged silage or haylage, and a wide variety of pelleted combination diets with a myriad list of ingredients. Trying to figure out how to grow our own hay, create our own silage or haylage, or recreate those pelleted feeds can seem daunting. On the one hand, yes it is a complex business. On the other hand, we don't have to recreate those pellets, per se. We just have to recreate the proper ratio of nutrients within them.
The good news is, there is plenty of documentation available to teach us what we need to know. Most introductory livestock books include a chapter on nutrition, including how to put together a home-made or locally sourced ration. For instance, in Dirk van Loon's The Family Cow , he devotes six chapters - almost 70 pages' worth - to the cow's dietary needs, and how to meet those needs cost effectively. He is also the author of Small-Scale Pig Raising , and in that book he devotes four chapters and almost 50 pages to pig nutrition. Switching species and authors, Jerry Belanger devotes over 20 pages to the topic in Raising Milk Goats the Modern Way
. The first subheading in his Nutrition chapter is "Purchase Feeds, or Mix Your Own?" His book packs a lot of information into that 20 pages, including guidelines for using whatever feed ingredients can be sourced locally. Now that's money saving information. I won't go through all the books for all the domesticated species, but you get the idea.
For those who want a much more thorough immersion in the science of livestock nutrition, there's few better than Morrison's Feeds & Feeding. This is literally the textbook which has been used in college-level livestock nutrition courses for most of the last century. A new edition comes out every 10-15 years to provide updated information after more research results have come in from various nutritional and livestock husbandry experimentation. A word of caution though, that after about the 1950's, the editions turned more towards confinement feed and industrial sourcing, which made sense for the “go big” philosophy at that time. If you want a good foundation in nutrition theory and practice, stick with either 20th or 21st Editions. Apparently Amazon.com has the 20th Edition , which came out in 1936. The 21st edition may also be available there if you dig through the listings. That edition came out in 1951. In addition to Amazon.com, these books are still frequently available at used book stores and via eBay. I found both of our copies on eBay for $5-$10 each. Can't beat that.
A third "oldie but goodie" is the classic Small-Scale Grain Raising
by Gene Logsdon. For far too long, his book was the sole source of information about how to raise small plots of grain (anywhere from garden-scale to a few acres' worth), for homesteaders and small family farms. It was written in the ‘70’s but it continues to be an excellent source of information today. His family raises a wide variety of livestock so his grains book talks not only about how to grow the grains, but how to feed them out to the animals in cost-effective and labor-saving ways. His book was out of print for awhile, and I found my used copy on eBay like I did the Morrison's Feeds & Feeding books described above. But the link above is for his recently released second edition. Even if you don't use much of the information in his book, it provides a lot more how-to-grow information than any of the previously listed books, and you'll feel like you're visiting with an old friend while reading it. It still ranks as one of my all-time favorite books.
If those books are old enough to make you squirm, and you're concerned you're missing out on new information, never fear. A variety of books have come out within the last 10-15 years about pastured livestock production, and incorporating traditional feedstocks into livestock rations to provide hay alternatives throughout the year. Joel Salatin has been instrumental in experimenting with, and writing up, pastured production for cattle, poultry, and rabbits. His books include You Can Farm , Pastured Poultry Profits
and Salad Bar Beef
. Additionally, Jim Gerrish has a pair of books that should be in the hands of every ruminant owner in the country, along with any poultry producer or hog producer interested in pasturing their animals. His first book, Management-Intensive Grazing , shows how to get the most out of any given pasture, while ironically making the pasture more robust and the soils more fertile. His second book, Kick the Hay Habit , shows how to introduce stockpiled forage back into the rotation so that producers can reduce or eliminate their dependence on baled hay during the winter.
So, Dear Reader, if you are concerned enough about GE crops that you want to grow your own, or perhaps you just want to see what's possible, there's plenty of information out there to get you started. How far you take it, and how much of your own feed you end up raising for yourself, is up to you. If nothing else, these sources of information would help you reach out to nearby producers that you can partner with. That can also be a potent combination, because you'd get the feeds you need, raised in ways you approve of, for far less than retail. And nearby growers are often delighted to work with clients who know what they want and will buy in bulk every year. Even if you don’t care about GE alfalfa, I heartily encourage you to explore some of these options. We don't need to live out of the retail feed bag. We never really did. And now the documentation is better than ever on how to raise our own feeds. To quote one of my favorite poetic passages, I encourage you "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", in your efforts to secure wholesome non-GE foods and feeds. It can be done.
|
|
Weblog Archives
We are still building out this new blog archiving system, so please be patient with us as we do so. We think you'll be pleased with the results.
In the meantime, feel free to look through our current and past blog entries while they're still on monthly pages. Check back soon and we'll hopefully have them all sorted quickly. Thank you for your patience.
Archives in Chronological Order
Current Entries:
Current Month's Entries
Previous Month's Entries:
February 2012 Weblog Entries
January 2012 Weblog Entries
December 2011 Weblog Entries
November 2011 Weblog Entries
October 2011 Weblog Entries
Sept 2011 Weblog Entries
Aug 2011 Weblog Entries
July 2011 Weblog Entries
June 2011 Weblog Entries
May 2011 Weblog Entries
April 2011 Weblog Entries
March 2011 Weblog Entries
February 2011 Weblog Entries
January 2011 Weblog Entries
Archives By Category
This section is still under construction. We hope to have it finished soon. Please feel free to explore the following categories, and check back often for additional categories. Thank you for your patience!
CATEGORIES:
Animal Husbandry
Cows
Ethics, Policies and Politics
Farm Lifestyle
Farm Planning
Farm Marketing
Horticulture
Hogs
Livestock Guardian Dogs
On-Farm Resource Management
Veterinary Services
Weather Issues
|
