Post by simplynaturalfarm on Nov 3, 2006 11:20:33 GMT -5
I never thought of it being the cow manure they had access to - thanks for bringing it up Joann. And very intriguing that your free range bantams lay more - I think animals do that just to drive us crazy!! My father in law was having problems with his confined hens not laying and asked how I got my gals to lay so well as he was feeding his the same diet as mine and they just weren't laying. I think it isn't just one thing but often a system and so just feeding them grains or scratch when they don't have an outside run or access to dirt and manure won't make them lay. ANd his are quite crowded AND they were purchased as year olds that had been confinement raised and raised on commercial starter and layer pellets. The more I research and look at how much the raising of your animals different ways, the more I wonder if starting them on a home made feed and free range didn't have a huge effect on their final ability to produce on that same diet the way raising a cow on a grass diet seems to predispose them to producing better on it in the end.
Living in this area of Wyoming for this short period has definitely gotten me to appreciate the hardiness of the cattle that live on the scrubby weeds the sandy soil produces. I can only imagine how well they would thrive on real grass! I blocked out a square yard in front of the cabin with string and in that square yard, the soil was like the sand you would find in Saskatchewan beaches. THere were 3 prickly weeds of unknown variety to me, two 5 inch patches of miniature sage or wormwood (maybe sage brush?) and one - ONE small bunch of grass that was about 3 inches across. The vet said it takes 30-50 acres PER cow calf pair to keep them and when DH looked at the local hay raised, it looked like a bale of prickly weeds with no grass. The cattle have to walk so far to get their daily nutritional needs and yet are thriving. Take cattle from almost anywhere else and I imagine they would starve in this environment, and yet these cattle are adapted to it and thrive. If I confined my birds they never lay as well and tended to pace the fences, so they might not have done well on layer pellets and confinement either.
Heather
Living in this area of Wyoming for this short period has definitely gotten me to appreciate the hardiness of the cattle that live on the scrubby weeds the sandy soil produces. I can only imagine how well they would thrive on real grass! I blocked out a square yard in front of the cabin with string and in that square yard, the soil was like the sand you would find in Saskatchewan beaches. THere were 3 prickly weeds of unknown variety to me, two 5 inch patches of miniature sage or wormwood (maybe sage brush?) and one - ONE small bunch of grass that was about 3 inches across. The vet said it takes 30-50 acres PER cow calf pair to keep them and when DH looked at the local hay raised, it looked like a bale of prickly weeds with no grass. The cattle have to walk so far to get their daily nutritional needs and yet are thriving. Take cattle from almost anywhere else and I imagine they would starve in this environment, and yet these cattle are adapted to it and thrive. If I confined my birds they never lay as well and tended to pace the fences, so they might not have done well on layer pellets and confinement either.
Heather