On Sat, 22 Mar 2003 04:41:37 -0500, Gordon Couger wrote:


"Gilgamesh" wrote in message
...
"Archimedes Plutonium" wrote in message
...
Sun, 16 Mar 2003 19:27:57 GMT Charles wrote:



http://plenty.150m.com/My_Links_Page..._manure01.html _


Thanks for the excellent site of comparison of rabbit manure to other
manure. Rabbit manure is unusually high in nitrogen.

Can someone tell me in chemistry if the animal body does something
with nitrogen that the plant body cannot do to nitrogen?

SNIP
Yes.
It degrades the protein, which contains nitrogen. The protein is
originally created by plants. You have this entirely the wrong way
round, I'm afraid.

Bacteria do quite well at creating protien. I can feed a cow urea for a
major part of her protien requirement and if there are enough
carbohydrates available the bacteria in the rumen will convert it to
protien the cow can use quite well.

With corn so cheap it less expensive to burn it for heating to heat a
house than anything but natural gas it makes good sense to winter cows
on pasture on corn, urea, low grade hay instead of good hay and oil
seed meal that is costs a small fortune. The cows do just as well. You
have to make sure and have enough trough space that they all get to eat
and you have to feed them every day or may have problems but after the
bacteria get through with it the cow likes it fine.

What with natural gas prices going up, corn will be more expensive to
produce. This is especially true for crops that need anhydrous ammonia,
since I suppose it's hard to import. Do you have in guesstimates on how
much U.S. farmer's production costs will increase this year?

The sorry hay could be replaced with paper or saw dust if you had to
but the freight is cheaper on the hay. All it really does is keep the
cow from eating too much at one time and can be left out if you feed the
cattle as they come in from grazing. It is hard to believe what a cow
can covert to food if all the necessary elements are present. A goat can
do even better but not near as much research has been done on goats.

Rabbits ferment grass to nutrients at the other end of the gut in the
appendix but it doesn't extract protien which is why their manure is
high in protien. When we try that we end up in the hospital having our
appendix removed.

Gordon