hope this in the right place.along the home economics line and self-reliance theme.how many grow crops to feed for livestock?as of the past few weeks the price of feed has jumped...whole corn is$13.95/100 and $15.95/100 for cracked corn.i was by the local feed store to get dog food and heard the folks talking about the big jump.seems corn and soybeans are in shortage because of the use for the etanol crazy.i also learned that they(govt)just took out of nonproduction 4 million acres for corn and soybean production.its crazy for us to have been paying farmers NOT to grow crops.if i get some livestock again this year i think i will grow a bit of the food for them myself.i do some wildlife food plots and was thinking i might just change or add different things to harvest for domestic stock and put in barn for storage.i have some chufa seed...have you ever grown this stuff??got a small automatic planter and i think i will put in a good bit of sunflowers to have the heads for some chickens and turkeys.anyone got experience with these crops??might try several different things in small patches like oats so the chickens can free range the heads as they bust open.if the deer leave it alone...if not the deer will go to freezer camp.thanks for any ideas or experience you have had with these crops.
While I agree in theory, the reality is that corporate farms have the ability to flood the market with a crop which devalues the product of the family/small producer. Simple macro economics - supply and demand. As long as we are participating in a world economy, we are going to be subject to economic tampering by the government. Maybe it doesn't even take global trade for tampering, simply legislators who can regulate prices without the black stain of calling it "price controls"
yes this is true....you think exxon and the oil company's dont pay to keep buisness intrests from drilling oil at known places it is?what a crock....just more examples of big brother and big buisness doing the wild thing together.i am all for small farmers.....i was in the small cattle buisness in the past.but all farmers dont make it...no more than all small buisness make it.i live in farming community and know of several farmers out of buisness due to foolish spending and poor managment.you cant buy luxury boats when the farm need equipment to succeed. its all a multiple edged sword though.cause what if you got a few bucks set aside and would like for the feds to rasie interests rates so you could make more money? i knew a old lady that during the 80's had a small amount set aside and during this time the interest doubled her monthly income.now it is nothing at all.she was getting over 9%.it is all how you view things ...it is up to us all to manipulate the things around us or what we are involved in to make our lives better or more secury.if i start keeping chickens and a few pigs to butcher i just would like to do it more cheaply.i got a tractor and a few pices of equipment so it is foolish for me to buy feed if i can produce a bit of it for myself. is there a spell check on this forum....lol..i need it
Some good hay for the cattle or goats would be well worth the time. I dont realy have any experience in growing the grains for the chickens and such though. Not real sure how it would shake out in the numbers to do it. I suppose a lot would depend on if you havethe ground and dont have anything else you could be/are useing it for. At least the way things have been the last couple of years I would say if you could plant good alphalfa or clover hay and put that up to sell in the winter it would more than likely pay for what you would need in the way of grain for some chickens and a couple of pigs with some money for the pockets left over, but like I say I dont have any real experience with raising grains.
Grow Corn Corn will produce more tonage per acre than any other grain. It is also the easiest grain to grow and harvest. Yes corn does have the lowest protien level of the grains. Another thing IMHO that people should do is to cut back on how much grain they give to their livestock. Our goats only get a bread pan full of corn each time we milk them. If they aren't milking then they don't get any grain at all. IMHO the 3 things that people need to learn about livestock is CULL, CULL, and CULL HARDER!!! Another nice thing about corn is that the stalks can be used as food as well as the grain. OGM
Alot of shade here I'm going to try some container planting this year. We had a five inch rain here recently and all of the nieghbors yards drained through the place where I was planning to plant, not good if they use pesticides. So I'll steer clear of the ground, because I can use much better soil in the planters. With a mister and drip irrigation It should do well. I can move the plants to best area for sun, and bring them in the enclosed patio in winter.
BAT1, Check out square foot gardening. Kinda like container plating, but a bit bigger. I've done it for 2 years now, not really full blown, but just something to do. I like it better than traditional row planting (as far as the size of my garden goes). I'm going to double my garden size this year (adding another 4x4) and hopefully will be able to can/preserve most of that garden. Ryan
Square Foot Gardening I picked up a copy of the book at a 2nd hand store several years ago, and have actually tried using some of the techniques. Alas, I haven't read the whole book, but it has a great deal in information for using as reference as needed. The beauty of the 4x4 square goes beyond just the minimal space requirements, but includes things like managability, maintenance, frugal seeding, and companion planting. Except for an ear-wig problem that I haven't really solved, it has worked very well. If I could devote more time I would expand it and grow a lot more. If a TEOTWAWKI situation arose, it would be something to help neighbors out to grow their own food... the only probable problem for me would be having water available.
Got any extra garden space or room for crops period. Put in sweet potatoes. Good for human or stock feed, easy to grow, they will keep indefinite time in a cool dry cellar. Nutritious, stock will eat the taters and the greens.
We garden every year and what we grow depends on how warm it gets and how soon. Last year the last freeze was in the middle of June and Sept. we are back to cold weather. We don't have the land to grow for our animals . We have already cut down on how many we have. If grain gets to high the chckens will be cut to about 20 for eggs just for us. The cow will be on as little grain as possible and keep her in milk. Good luck everyone.
after storms like we've had last year many farms don't have enough to harvest and so collect crop insurance... if this happens where you are after the inspectorcomes by ask the farme to gleen the crop most will let you for free... you can get a bunch of corn that will keep your chickens feed trrough the winter...
