High price of corn leading "farmers" to alternative food sources for cattle...

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by Finchj, Sep 23, 2012.

  1. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    Bullrushes (Typha) happen to be the most prolific root producing plant known. So much so that you can raise about 100 pigs per acre of Typha.

    There are devils in the details (how fast the typha regenerates, draining the land so the pigs can move around etc) but there is a vast food crop out there just waiting to be turned into bacon.

    The chances are, you could run pigs for the full 6 months it takes to raise them (spring floods, regeneration time etc) but you could run them for the last 3 months of summer and for the first three months, on raised beds full of potatoes, veges etc.

    You would also divide the typha crop into small areas that you intensely graze for a short time, just like with grass. That would give the Typha a decent regeneration time.

    Another idea I had was to start a mobile pigdozer business where you charge farmers to clear Typha for them. You come in first and dig a small drainage channel and once the ground is firm enough, you move in your piglets and set up an electric fence to keep them contained. The trailer they arrived in can act as a mobile home for them. This way, you don't even need land.
     
  2. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    The mobile pigdozer sounds like a great idea!
     
  3. jonesC

    jonesC New Member

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    Interesting! The current corn shortage has forced cash strapped farmers to get imaginative. Candy is progressively becoming a supplement to the diet of cows. Seriously, I can't imagine how cookies or gummy worms will suffice the nutrient needs of livestock. Well, I'm sticking to grass-fed cows if I want beef in the future.
     
  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow. From your linked article:
    It's all about money ... no ethics at all. Besides, most candies are made with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) these days.

    ETA: Plus, cows are not made to eat grain!
    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/interviews/pollan.html
     
  5. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    i just cannot understand how a farmer with any respect or care for their animals can do such things to them. treating a cow like a pig is just plain stupid and wrong.

    i feel sorry for animals that have no sort of natural life. there was a local person who kept half a dozen cows in a very small pen. they stood around in their excrement for most of their life, eating a large bale of hay in the middle and then when there was rain it was a huge foul mire and the cows would scramble to try to find a dry spot to settle. i still do not know why the person was never cited for cruelty to animals. anyways, the farmer recently died and the pen is now empty and growing a very healthy stand of grasses.
     

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