Re: Re: FARMING Katja/tractors/hay/nature/soil

[Guest guest]

>if it's just for hay, WHY do you need hay? why

>> do all that work when the animals can just eat it off the ground?

>> maybe this sounds naive, but i'm thinking of the millenia before

>> agriculture and how well animals survived without hay.

>

><><><><><><><><>When this ocurred there may been very few animals per

>acre, although I don't know.Dennis

They also moved the animals to different pasture in the

summer. Price describes this ... the animals move up the

mountain in summer, down to the valleys in winter.

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

,

In the North once the pastures turn brown from frost then snow comes you

need hay to feed cows, beef and sheep through the winter. The hay is dry but

still has some green in it. Its more nutritious than frost killed grass,

less than pasture. Their stomachs break the hay down into energy. Hay is

different mixtures of seeds than pasture especially for this winter feeding.

> >if it's just for hay, WHY do you need hay? why

> >> do all that work when the animals can just eat it off the ground?

> >> maybe this sounds naive, but i'm thinking of the millenia before

> >> agriculture and how well animals survived without hay.

Wanita

[Guest guest]

At 11:29 PM 1/29/2004, you wrote:

> > <><><><><><<>This is very LABOR intensive(planting seeds yearly or

> > even weekly) unless you can survive on native annuals and

> > perennials. Some parts of the world would be best for this I'm

> > thinking, like maybe nearer the equator where there's lot's of

>native

> > fruits and berries..Dennis

>@@@@@@@@@@@@

>

>maybe much less labor, because I think most farm labor comes from

>cultivating and weeding. or fertilizing, which is also not

>necessary. direct-seeding is not so labor intensive.

i think it depends too on the cover crop. like i said, when we were

allowing the hay to be cover, it was beastly. but with nice tight clover,

it's pretty nice...

[Guest guest]

What about silage? How would you rate this compared to hay and pasture?

What exactly is it apart from a smelly gunk?

Helen

> ,

>

> In the North once the pastures turn brown from frost then snow comes you

> need hay to feed cows, beef and sheep through the winter. The hay is dry

but

> still has some green in it. Its more nutritious than frost killed grass,

> less than pasture. Their stomachs break the hay down into energy. Hay is

> different mixtures of seeds than pasture especially for this winter

feeding.

>

> > >if it's just for hay, WHY do you need hay? why

> > >> do all that work when the animals can just eat it off the ground?

> > >> maybe this sounds naive, but i'm thinking of the millenia before

> > >> agriculture and how well animals survived without hay.

>

> Wanita