Home raised animal feed

[TxGypsy]

While reading another posting about concern over what goes in our animals feeds I thought it would be a good idea to start a new thread. Especially when you add in the outrageous cost of feed...it's time to do some brainstorming. Please give suggestions for raising or finding safe sources of animal feed.

Chickens are obviously the easiest since they will eat most things. Dry excess veggies and store them for the winter. Put them in a pot to simmer for 'chicken soup'.....soup for the chickens. This warm mash could be fed to pigs and possibly other animals too. It helps to utilize some of the garden bounty that might otherwise go to waste and it doesn't work you to death doing it.....drying is easy.

Grow some mangle beets for the cow and see how she likes em. Carrots and other root crops too. Make your own hay with a weed eater or scythe and store it loose.

Rabbits are really easy to provide for. Good quality alfalfa/mixed hay, comfrey leaves, and some root crops. I've always supplemented with store bought feed, but if you research nutrition you might be able to come up with a complete ration.

Dedicate an area of the garden for growing grains. Experiment! Try things other than just corn and wheat. Even if you have a small place I'd try a small patch.

If you have grazers....diversify your pasture. The more variety, the more nutrition.

Don't forget water. Secure a good source of water for you animals that would be hard to contaminate.

Now is the time to safeguard our food supply!

[RoseGarden]

I've fed greens for quite a while, usually kale because it's so easy to grow, contains a lot of nutrients, will overwinter and last quite a while into the spring. I have a row that is just now starting to bolt to seed so I figure I have gotten 5 months worth of greens for the poultry off of them. I need to grow more rows this fall.

I'm trying corn, because it's high protein and I can probably feed the stalks as green feed too. I'm also going to plant a little plot of mixed kinds of millet to see which does the best. Some people grow a lot of sunflowers for seed, too. Grain amaranth is easy to grow and really beautiful, and they are supposed to be an old staple grain crop in south America, but the seeds are so very small that I don't know how you would incorporate them into feed. Maybe mixed with something wet? The flower heads produce zillions of tiny seeds, about the size of a comma here. Sorghum is easy to grow, but IMO you don't get much seed per head, and the wild birds eat a whole lot of it. I didn't like it the time I grew it, and unless I had a lot of space to dedicate to it, I won't grow it again.

[Karin L]

Home-raised animal feed is what me and my folks do for our cattle, even though it has costs labour-wise and we have to depend on the weather to make a suitable crop, the overall outcome is worth it.

We have our own hay fields and raise our own barley for silage for feed in the winter as well have about 100 acres of pasture to throw them on in late spring/summer time. Barley grain and straw are used as grain supplement and bedding, respectively. This year we're using the same cultivar of barley for both silage production and grain.

We make our own hay because the price per ton of baled hay is atrocious, and because we have the resources and equipment on hand. Alfalfa, timothy and smooth brome make for good hay b/c of palatability and high protein (thanks to the alfalfa), and there are a few other grasses thrown in for variety of nutritional needs of our steers.

[Trixie]

When I was a kid, we raised all our animal feed, except a little dairy feed for the cow - very little since she got corn tops and 'nubbins' also.

We cut the corn tops, tied them in bundles and shocked them in the fields, then stored them in the barn and that was they ate in winter. My stepfather would take some of the ears of corn and have them ground, shucks and all. This was feed to the range cows and mixed with dairy feed.

We also feed the corn shucks and all, to the horses and pigs. We would shell the corn off the cob for chickens. Of course, all the animals were free to roam and scrounge.

We also rotated planting corn and peas. We would pick and can a lot of green peas, then the pigs and cows were turned into the fields to eat the peas and vines.

Of course, the pigs got all the scraps and my Mother poured her dishwater in the pig slop. She used lie soap in for washing dishes and that was supposed to somehow be good for them, as well as the grease and food particles.

The climate was pretty good, so he also raised pastures of winter grass - not sure what it was - but something.

Once in a while, we bought wheat shorts to fatten out a hog we were going to butcher and we did buy baby chick feed.

[farmwife]

I don't have anything to add, but just saying we will get ideas here. We want to cut down on buying and grow our own things.

[myheaven]

lawn baglage. I dont have the "green envious grass" as my neighbors. I over seeded it with clover and other grasses. I cut my "lawn" with the big tractor mower let it dry a little rake it up and put it in the HEAVY duty garbage bags put it in the feed barn and let it ferment. silage on the small scale. Some of my neighbors and friends laugh at me most pat me on the back for such a great use of a small space. Wait till they see my side yard of animal corn and black oil sunflower seeds.
I cut down my corn stalks and sunflower stalks at the ground with my little red hoe. tie then in bundles and feed them trewout the winter to the pigs rabbits cows and goats. You can even do baglage with the corn stalks just run them over with the lawn mower or use a chipper/shredder. Store squashes in the basement for the pig and us of course. thats all I can think of now but will post more the more I remember.

[thechickenladyx]

i've been trying to grow some feed, but you need a good amount of sunny land, which i don't have. and the wild birds sure do enjoy my efforts. still working a way to get enough for winter. any tips are vey cool.

jesse

[sammyd]

We do the baglage. Last year we put the bags in buckets with lids to help keep things airtight. The cows love it. We also chip/shred the leftover cornstalks and small ears but just greenfeed them in the fall when the pasture is slowing down.
Sunflower heads and kidney beans in bunches in the garage/barn.
Plant oats when we seed our pasture so we get a crop that we can use that year. Thresh some for the chickens, keep some unthreshed and feed it to the cows.
Kitchen scraps to the chickens.
Wanted to try some fodder beets or mangels but haven't got a good place to store them yet. Sounds like you can get some tonnage from them.
Got a room upstairs full of squash and pumpkin for the animals. Well, not so full right now......

[myheaven]

oh yeah pea hay. When the pea plants are done for the year pull them and let them dry Rabbits love the pea hay. I done it with my pole beans also. I let the pig glean my garden after the hard frost gets it. Free feed and manure for the garden not to mention they tear up the green stuff so it wont come back and no need for anything to kill greens the pigs already done it. The goats are taking care of the over growth of black berry plant at this moment. They love them I hate them. When i weed the garden I take the grasses and non poisnus weeds to the pigs and rabbits. weeds can be useful.

[RockyGlen]

we grow oats, wheat, corn and alfalfa. We mix our own sweet feed for the dairy cows treat (the sweet part is molasses). All garden "waste" like pea vines, tomato vines, etc. get fed to the cows. We also stake the cows out in the yard and let them eat fresh green grass in small amounts.

we would like to turn pigs loose in the garden in the fall, but are worried our fence would not hold them. It is 4 feet tall, but just thin woven wire and not buried.

[Cyngbaeld]

Run some hotwire around the inside of the garden fence to keep the pigs in. You will have to make sure it stays hot tho, cause pigs will sense it is off.

[Beaners]

Does anyone have a resource that lists protein content, etc for different grains and legumes and such? And what is the comparable content in different types of animal feeds? So if I feed x and y to chickens, it is similar to feeding them "z feed" but they need to have more a and b in their diet if you want to feed them something like "c feed".

Kayleigh

[minnikin1]

Nobody mentioned feeding farm dogs -
We have lgd's and so far they have been eating beautifully from a
deer I hit with the car.
It was so easy to butcher it compared to the ones we do for our own
consumption. We chopped it with a sawz-all and completed the project in
just over an hour.

I would love to hear more about baglage.
I tried it last year, and wound up throwing it out because I was afraid it wasn't any good. I had a hard time getting all the air out of the bags. I was
using lawn mowings.
How did you determine how much to feed each day?

[myheaven]

with the bagladge you need to cut it in the am let it dry all day in a pretty good sunn warm day. 65 deg or more. flip it half way during the day. bag it at night at close to dusk. Start feeding only a little a handful or so at a time. If it is moldy in the middle its bad. It will modl on teh top just throw that in the garden. Slime means its bad. I think this year im going to try the big rubbermade garbage cans with the bag on top then the lid. Ill keep yall updateed on if this worked better. Not to mention the cost of replacing the bags every year.

[Bill in Tn]

I grow sweet potatoes for our chickens and guineas. They love them and it keeps them busy for a long time. They are easy to grow and easy to store.

[woolyfluff]

looking for info on two different type of feed"pondmeal" duckweeds I understand they grow real fast and are good for most animals

[briches]

One idea that comes to mind is that when I was teaching in NC, our school cafeteria used to use 2 trashcans. All the paper goods were dumped into one of them, and all the food scraps went into the other. A local pig farmer would come and pick it up. Free food. I don't know if schools would allow this today or not (this was 10 years ago), but it may be worth a try.

Perhaps you could also try some schools or restaurants or even grocery stores. If you are a church member, perhaps you could ask them to save scraps after dinner nights.

My rabbits LOVE eating corn husks (green or dry)- I plan on saving them all summer (and getting friends to as well)- if you braid them, they love to toss them around. I guess that's more of a toy/treat than nutrious, but it helps.

Let's keep the ideas coming . . .

[TxGypsy]

Originally Posted by briches

Perhaps you could also try some schools or restaurants or even grocery stores. If you are a church member, perhaps you could ask them to save scraps after dinner nights.

My rabbits LOVE eating corn husks (green or dry)- I plan on saving them all summer (and getting friends to as well)- if you braid them, they love to toss them around. I guess that's more of a toy/treat than nutrious, but it helps.

Let's keep the ideas coming . . .

I'd suggest small privately owned grocery stores. I worked in the bakery of a small/medium size chain grocery and they made us throw everything in the trash. You were fired if you didn't. Absolutely made me ill. I had a coop with about 100 hens in it at that time. The produce department is more likely to give you the pieces they trim off, but those generally have the most pesticide on them too. Check bakery outlet stores. They have to rotate their stock quickly so you can sometimes get a great deal on a lot of bread. Like $2 for a trash can full. For scraps try places like senior centers.

In situations like mine.....there are no 'city' sources available. I have to raise everything or buy in bulk because town is so far away.

Another use for corn husks....tamales! I know it isn't animal feed. I am totally addicted!

[SquashNut]

What is in the mix of seeds they use for deer plots? If you could find that out it might give you some ideas. I know one of the plants they use are turnips.

[FreeRanger]

I grew some turnips for my sheep last year. Sheep in enjoyed it as a winter treat to go with the hay. Worked pretty good so planted more yesterday.

I butchered two cull ewes last week. Plan to sell as mutton burger for dogs.