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It's not Just Joel Salatin anymore
FarmI wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message Billy wrote: In article , "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: "David Hare-Scott" wrote in message FarmI wrote: "David Hare-Scott" wrote in message Salatin does not claim this level of productivity because there is 450ac of woods as well as the 100ac of pasture. The woods make a sizeable contribution to the farm, it produces much pig feed and biomass that is used for a variety of purposes and assists in other ways. So to be more accurate the above production is from 550ac. I would be interested to know what can be done by conventional means. The comparison would be very difficult to make fair I think because the conventional system uses many external inputs and would have trouble matching that diversity of outputs. I suspect that just measured in calories per acre the intensive monoculture might win. The whole point of this is that you can only do that for a limited amount of time with many inputs and many unwanted side effects. Not to mention that man does not live by bread (or high fructose corn syrup) alone. Fair comment David, but then there is a much higher cost to the quality of life for the animals? I'm sure that you, like me, have seen intensive operations such a feed lots and caged chooks. That was one of the side effects I had in mind. We have chook sheds for meat birds in the district. Ten thousand or twenty in a shed with a dirt floor with just enough room to move between the feed and the water. Lights on half the night to get them to eat more. The workers wear breathing apparatus to clean out the sheds and it will make you puke at 400m on a hot night. The eagles dine well on those who get trodden under. Nuff said. Indeed. I've been to a feed lot and I had the same reaction although this was probably one of the better run ones. I'd turn vegetarian if our local buthcer sourced his meat at places like that but I can see his 'feed lot' (for want of a better description as it's jsut his farm) from the road and his cattle have quite a nice spot for the final finish on feed before they take the trip to the abattoir. (sp?) I grew up on a poultry farm and my mother refused to have any cages on the place with the exception of a row of 10 where she used to put birds that were off colour and needed to be taken away from the bullying tactics of the rest of the flock. In the 50s and 60s when other poultry farmers were moving to cages and proud of it, we were free ranging. We once had a city person come back to us and complain about the eggs they bought off us. According to them, the eggs were 'off' and had to be thrown out because they had 'very yellow yolks'. In those days it meant the chooks had a varied diet not just pellet chook food. A question that you would know, is the yellow yolk still such an indicator or is it emulated these days by diet additives? That is one of those 'it depends' answers as in, it depends ont he feed. If you feed them on kitchen scraps (not recommended as that isn't nutritious enough) then free ranging (as opposed to keeping confined) will change the colour of the yolk. Pellets contain a yellowing agent, but apparently that yellow isn't carried through so that in baked goods show up the yellowing. Yolks that are yellow as a result of the feed they find outside does hang on through the baking process so that the baked goods (like say a butter cake) will appear more yellow. I've not done these tests myself but there was a long article on it (with comparative pics) in one of the 'Australasian Poultry' mags a couple of years ago. A great little magazine and as cheap as chips. My food books say the yellow of the yolk is due to xanthophylls which come from plants, typically lucerne and corn. Not having chook books I do this backwards. Apparently corn feed is also responsible for the yellow skin and fat found in some "organic" meat birds. Yep, corn does give yellow fat. dunno what gives the yoldk it's yellow colour in pellets though. do you want me to dig out my A'Asian Poultry mag with that article in it about yolk colour and give you a precis? I am interested but don't go to too much trouble. Besides having a yoke that looks like an apricot, instead of a lemon, real eggs have a viscosity to them that factory produced eggs don't. Is the height and viscosity of the egg contents a result of diet and health of the chook or a sign of freshness, or both? I'd say it's more freshness than anything. Duck eggs are even more so of both. The same ref (McGee 'On Food and Cooking') says freshness has much to do with it. Come on chook people - give me the scoop before I build the chook house. Before you even start that, pay strict attention to rats and how to control and exclude them. But really chooks are easy. I already have a master plan for the erradication of the rodents since they ate the weather seal off my shed door to get in and they attack the produce on the verandah. It doesn't work of course but I do fight them to a draw. People comment on how generous I am with feed for them. Them pellets ain't chook food. Keep the foxes away and wild birds out of the night yard/feed area. Keep the pullets confined when you get them till they get used to their night house and yard and then let them out to range (Ours range in an orchard which is prolly about a quarter of an acre). I wouldn't fully free range if you want to have veg though or toehrwise you wont' have veg. They will do a good job of spreading horse plops. Foxes are a real problem, such destructive buggers, the chook house will be metal with buried barriers, the yard will have a loop off the electric fence around it as well. How do you stop them scratching all the mulch off your fruit trees? David |
#2
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It's not Just Joel Salatin anymore
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
FarmI wrote: Yep, corn does give yellow fat. dunno what gives the yoldk it's yellow colour in pellets though. do you want me to dig out my A'Asian Poultry mag with that article in it about yolk colour and give you a precis? I am interested but don't go to too much trouble. OK. I have to dig through them to let someone on another ng know aobut why lime is used in the henhouse so when I do that for her, I'll look for the article for you. Before you even start that, pay strict attention to rats and how to control and exclude them. But really chooks are easy. I already have a master plan for the erradication of the rodents since they ate the weather seal off my shed door to get in and they attack the produce on the verandah. It doesn't work of course but I do fight them to a draw. People comment on how generous I am with feed for them. Them pellets ain't chook food. Unlike mice, rats are much harder to kill off. We've done the hose pipe from the car exhaust down the tunnels, the Jack Russells and a shovel and posion but the sods keep coming back. I'm advised by the chooky people I know that traps don't work like they do for mice. I think far more concrete might be the next strategy. Keep the foxes away and wild birds out of the night yard/feed area. Keep the pullets confined when you get them till they get used to their night house and yard and then let them out to range (Ours range in an orchard which is prolly about a quarter of an acre). I wouldn't fully free range if you want to have veg though or toehrwise you wont' have veg. They will do a good job of spreading horse plops. Foxes are a real problem, such destructive buggers, the chook house will be metal with buried barriers, the yard will have a loop off the electric fence around it as well. Also lay about 30 cm of wire out from the fence towards where the foxes would be coming from. They don't think to step back and then to burrow under so it's more efficient than burying it. Also use a heavy guage netting on the bottom part of the pen. The idiot who built ours used a very light guage and the foxes worry at it till they get a hole and you'd be surprised at how tiny a hole is needed to let a fox through. I've had to progressively go round that blasted orchard and add new wire in addition to the old stuff. How do you stop them scratching all the mulch off your fruit trees? I don't. I chuck piles of weeds under the fruit trees and the chooks go in and forage and scratch it around and while they're doing that they're leaving droppings and getting rid of excess grass growth. My garden is not a pristine, neat place but it is productive. Me and the willing but ignorant undergardener have 2 farms to look after and 2 houses and 2 gardens so there is not a lot of time for 'neat'. |
#3
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It's not Just Joel Salatin anymore
I chuck piles of weeds under the fruit trees and the chooks
go in and forage and scratch it around and while they're doing that they're leaving droppings and getting rid of excess grass growth. My garden is not a pristine, neat place but it is productive. Me and the willing but ignorant undergardener have 2 farms to look after and 2 houses and 2 gardens so there is not a lot of time for 'neat'. Here is a gem for the spectators (if any): do away with terminal neatness. D |
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