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



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

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