The Natural Diet of Cattle Is Grass!

Following on to my research on grass-based chicken husbandry, I've been doing some reading on the concept of grass-fed livestock in general and how important it is to go back in time with heritage breeds. If one is truly serious about grass forage, doesn't it make genetic and ecological sense to use livestock breeds that were originally optimized for grass instead of grain? Why try to use a breed optimized for a grain-based feed lot operation? Luckily there are organizations like the Livestock Conservancy doing their best to recover and conserve our heritage gene stock across multiple livestock types.

As for grass forage ecology, an opinion piece by Joann Grohman in the October 2014 issue of Acres USA magazine (available here too) brings all of this together in the context of the terrestrial carbon cycle. The central thesis of this piece is that from the mile-high view, there really is "no shortage of land" for agriculture. The current agribusiness model is to blame for cattle getting a bad rap particularly with CO2 emissions. For grass to develop into efficient carbon capturing turf, grazing herbivores are essential and their grazing habits are driven by predation. Anyone who has started a new lawn and knows about the proper way to cut grass has this figured out already.

Some select quotes from the article:

1) "The natural diet of cattle is grass."

2) "Cattle are not competing with humans for grass, their real food. The fact that corn and soy are being fed to animals reflects the artificial circumstances in which the animals are begin kept."

3) "Food production in an integrated small farm system is capable of being far more productive per acre than an agribusiness model because all of the different parts support each other, plus the small farm system greatly benefits from close management by the owner (see my note below)."

4) "Manure in the open air is not a source of methane."

5) "Grass, the world's most widespread crop, truly is amazing. To properly encourage grass, herbivores must graze in a dense pattern. Grass achives its maximum turf-building response only under the grazing presence of bunched animals, and then the animals must move on, leaving the grass to regrow. In the wild this is absolutely dependent on the presence of predators, otherwise the animals will stray apart in a random fashion and the turf-building effect is lost."

6) "This property of grass is entirely dependent on the presence of herbivores. Without the nibbling, trampling and fertilization of herbivores, grass fails to function as this massive carbon sink. Grass without grazers dies above ground and loses its carbon back into the air."

Note: my concern about #3 is the manual labor-cost factor. I can believe that a totally integrated organic farming operation with sufficient land can be self sustaining and maybe even more efficient than a factory farm operation. But at what cost? Will the masses be able to afford the product?

Some farmers are able to make this work such as Poly Face Farm down in the Valley of Virginia. I am particularly impressed with their cattle/poultry rotation strategy, the role of native forage, and the incorporation of swine in woody borders and forest land. I've got to get down there this spring for a look around.

We've Got Your Darkling Beetles Right Here !!

The darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor) is the adult form of the common meal worm. In a previous post we described how we set up a starter colony in mid-December with the ultimate aim to provide some winter insect protein for our chickens. Now all of the worms have morphed into the adult form. Let the breeding and egg laying begin!

We probably should have started this project back in September since by the time we get our first crop of fresh worms it will be early spring. Needless, this starter colony will give us the critical mass we need to get a second tub going and provide for future winters.

Stay tuned, but in the meantime, see this page from the Sialis site for details.

The New Victory Garden (1987)

Anyone remember the PBS "Victory Garden" show from the mid-1980s? You know back when PBS "how-to" shows actually SHOWED you how to do stuff instead of just how to drop huge sums of money on contractors and specialists (e.g., "This Old House")? Back when there was only one PBS fund raising session to endure?

Growing up in the country around family farms and gardens, I didn't have a lot of use for these shows until after college. During my apartment inmate phase I would often check in with these shows to keep my interest up, learn about new technologies and to day-dream about some day having a place to do some of this stuff myself.

Although out of print, I am glad that copies of Bob Thompson's The New Victory Garden (Little Brown, 1987) can still be had on the net. Bob took over from the show's creator Jim Crockett of "Crockett's Victory Garden" fame. The PBS show has gone through a lot of changes and the last time I saw it a few years ago it definitely wasn't what it used to be. In today's gardening climate you would be much better served watching something like "Growing a Greener World". Unfortunately our local PBS stations don't carry it but all of the last five seasons are available for viewing off their web site. The later season are HD so why not cable the laptop to the big screen. I see a lot of the magic of the early "Victory Garden" seasons in this show. It is definitely first-rate and worth the time to get caught up especially in the depths of winter.

Times change of course but for those of you contemplating your first garden or those just waiting for the snow to melt, Thompson's book is a real gem especially along side the seed catalogs that show up this time of year. The photography is incredible and the chapters are broken down by gardening month; what to plant and when. Of course this was written by a New England gardener so you'll need to consult your local growing zone/last frost date and adjust accordingly. 

First Haircuts

The onion seeds that were planted on Christmas day are coming in nicely. They've gotten long enough now to require their very first haircut of the season. This is critical with onion seedlings in order to encourage additional leaf development and to give the plant a chance to grow and increase in diameter so they will be big enough when it comes time to put them into the ground come late March/early-April (similar to mowing new grass to encourage growth).

 

Generally I only do this twice but since these were started about a month earlier than usual they may require three trims. Also at this time I begin watering with 3-10-3 (root) fertilizer to encourage strong root development. By the time of the second haircut I'll switch over to one-quarter strength Miracle Grow. Onions are normally heavy feeders and with the extended time they spend in this soil less sprouting mix they definitely need this added nutrition.

Winter Quarters

With an Alberta Clipper and arctic air outbreak predicted for this week we moved the chicken tractor to its permanent winter time quarters last weekend, and just in the nick of time. Starting Monday evening, night time lows for most of the week were in the single digits with deadly wind chills. Gone were the days of simply bringing in the water bucket at night as the nipples quickly froze well before the reservoir when day time temps stayed below freezing. This called for some quick fix engineering (QFE). For a regular chicken coop this is normally not an issue as you can get a wide variety of water heaters designed specifically for poultry wateres. But things are a bit more complicated with chicken tractors.

Luckily I had an old crock-pot insert down in the basement, basically a heavy porcelain dish that would hold about a gallon of water and not tip over when a chicken stands on the rim. For some reason chickens insist on standing on the rim of any dish you put into their pen. Pain-in-the-ass to say the least! Thankfully, the local feed store happened to have a neat solid-state immersion heater by Farm Innovators of Plymouth, Indiana designed specifically to keep bird baths clear in the winter. And it carries a three year warranty to boot! So far it has worked beautifully. No ice on the edges or anything. All I had to do was run a couple of extension cords off the back patio socket. As we get into the depths of winter this will have to do until thngs moderate enough to go back to using the nipple bucket.

Since the tractor will be stationary for several months I added in some straw to help with the mud and ice as the girls quickly chewed off the last of the grass and managed to scratch things up to bare earth. I also rigged up a tarp to help break the wind. Wind chills can be really brutal in our yard coming in from the north and west. So the tarp is tucked under the tractor on the north-east side and rigged with bungees so it can be pulled over to cover the run from snow and ice and easily pulled back over half-way to allow for sun exposure. The hutch enclosure has no special insulation; its only a wind break. But I do go out at night to close the pop door.

Chickens are birds. They have feathers and down. But I really had my doubts about how the girls would survive the weather this week. This Long Horn/Rhode Island Red hybrid has a fairly substantial comb and wattle. But I looked them over very closely today and I don't see any signs of frost bite. And much to my surprise, we continue to receive three to four eggs per day. Truly amazing! Now I know why all of the local Mennonite free-range farmers like to use this breed. We've already passed the shortest photo period of the year. Production has fallen off somewhat as has egg size. But dangerously low temps don't seem to be all that detrimental to egg production at least so far. I had no idea we would be able to maintain this level of egg production through the depths of winter.