This is for all you folks (Ken S., Earthmama) who raise beef to sell to others. I believe I have read that you both use grain as supplemental feed during certain periods. I would like to raise beef in the future, but would like to be sure that it is eating organically raised feed that has not been genetically modified.

It seems that years ago ruminants were fed large amounts of root crops and brassicas, and given the tonnage per acre yield of fodder beets, potatoes, stock kale, etc., this seems like a viable alternative to me. Has anyone tried this? What were the advantages and disadvantages that you experienced? Any experience on any scale will surely provide useful information. Thanks in advance. --Laura

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), December 14, 2000

Answers

Laura:

I have extremely limited experience in this. A couple of years ago a guy down the road stopped by to tell me he was through picking winter turnips and I could have all I wanted for my cows. Well, it was fairly hard work just getting about five five-gallon plastic buckets of them. Then, the lady friend who was here at the time insisted they be washed. Then they had to be chopped up. Then only a couple of the cows had a taste for them. I turned down further opportunities.

That said, old farming books do say many root crops can be used for livestock feed. They just need to be in small enough pieces none choke on them. I don't particularly want to try to give the Heimlin (sp?) maneuver to a 900-pound cow. My arms simply aren't long enough. I've given CPR to a newborne calf, but a cow is a totally different question.

A couple of neighbors or other people will let me come and haul off sweet corn stalks after they have picked all they want. Many still have a juicy ear on them. When I am unloading them for the herd, the ears are the first thing gone after. I have one young cow who bumps me in the back until I pull off ears for her. Just sticking them into her mouth isn't enough. I have to shuck the husk back first. When I complained about this to the same lady friend above, she commented I am the one who made her that way, and I plead guilty.

I expect my cows to live on pasture and hay. Supplemental feed for them is totally a treat. For the bulls, it helps them get into good breeding condition. For my heifers it is also a treat just to get them use to being around me and coming when I call. If you can get a heifer to take range cubes out of your hands, she will be gentle (with rare exceptions) for life.

Home-grown versus store-bought is mostly a matter of trading off labor for convenience.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 14, 2000.

alot of my older farming/homesteading books say root crops is the best animal fodder,, was the only at one time I assume

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), December 14, 2000.

Dear Laura,

I have two cows that I feed turnips, carrots, cabbage, beans (whatever is bountiful in the garden at the time) to, along with either pasture or hay, of course. My husband has seen cows eating smashed pumpkins too. Currently I am feeding turnips from a plot that is still growing under some mulch in the garden. I wash the turnips and cut them up to avoid choking hazards. By the way, a supposed cure for choking is to cover the cows's nostrils with your hand. This forces the cow to cough the offending chunk up. I've never tried it myself, but it does sound easier than performing the Bovine Heimlich Maneuver! I enjoy growing these crops and feeding them to the cows (and myself!). The cows occasionally turn their noses up at some of the offerings, but most of the time seem to like it. I only have the two cows so it is enjoyable and not burdensome to do this extra work. Throw in a few more cows though, and I would have to think about it.

-- Barb (rosemontfarm1@aol.com), December 14, 2000.

I feed my milk goats sweet potatoes,beets,turnips,collards etc as treats.Collards are especially high in calcium which milkers need.They love all of them especially the sweet potatoes.Cut them in small pieces so they won't choke.I think a mixed diet of these things would be fine for goats or cows(with good hay) but the labor would be to much for most folks.

-- JT Sessions (gone2seed@hotmail.com), December 14, 2000.

My parents have shared stories with me about liveing through the depression(since I'm a child of theirs/ I have aquired the habit of collecting everything/ as someone --sometime MIGHT need it!). They feed all their livestock root crops! Also, there was a WPA work camp about a mile from where they lived/ building a lake & my Dad hauled off all their garbage & feed to the livestock----since they had no meat, at the camp it was all vegetable scraps/ that, they had to haul off! That is what the livestock lived on!!!!! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), December 14, 2000.

We raise beef and replacement heifers. We were so ignorant about the importance of getting our hay in when we first started raising cattle we didn't get any in and wound up paying $3.00 a bale and were darn glad to be able to get it. Unfortunately that left next to nothing for grain. We had an elderly farmer suggest we look for a load of cull potatoes, which we could afford. Frankly, it makes outstanding feed. I'll tell you that the potato fed beef does very well. We just dressed out a 30 month old hereford bull at 1036. His carcass was outstanding, lean and tender.

We always feed potatoes when we can get them. There is only one potato farm close enough to pick up at and they can't always keep us well supplied because they also raise cattle. If you are looking for feed you can afford, and you don't keep alot of animals you might try this:

2 parts soaked beans 2 parts soaked beet pulp 2 parts dairy grain (any grain will probably work, but this is what we get a super bargain on because we buy with a dairy farmer)

The potatoes get fed in the winter after harvest until they are gone. I can pick up a few tons of cull beans (all kinds) in the fall, those are fed year round. If you are really broke, you can supplement with bread - no pastries. Always change feed gradually. Potatoes can choke a cow, so don't feed them if you've got a really hungry animal, or if you have alot of time, you can cut them. We never had a problem with a cow choking, and if our cows ever got out you would find them over at the potato pile. They love them.

I keep a close eye on what we spend on feed, and we bargain and buy tons at a time to keep our costs down. I figure our cows cost us $10 to $12 a month, not including hay which we also produce. If prices go too high on one item we adjust the feed. Our winters are pretty cold, so it makes sense for us to make sure our animals get lots of feed because they are out unless they are calving or brand new calves.

I guess our emphasis is more on containing costs then focusing on organic production because margins are so tight. Still, if organic production is your goal, I wish you the best of luck. I am sure you'd be happy with potato fed beef, just don't forget to give them hay, they need it.

-- Anne Tower (bbill@wtvl.net), December 14, 2000.

Picked up "Practical Agriculture" circa 1909 at an antique store - it lists carrots, mangels, irish and sweet potatoes, red and suger beets, turnips, and ruta-bagas as suitable root / tuber crops to feed.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), December 15, 2000.

Tomatoes rank as the #1 crop in my county, so there are tons of cull tomatoes available. It is very common to see dump truck loads going to the cow pastures. A truckload doesn't last long, even in a small herd.

-- Dan G/N Fl (stagecoach@hotmail.com), December 15, 2000.

One comment and one question:

Comment - My mother has a pet cow (a rescued to be "recycled" dairy cow that was her favorite when she worked the college farm) and that animal get so much in the way of "people food" (ie kitchen scraps, outdated produce, leftover and culled harvest) that she probably thinks that hay is for peasant cattle. She was even thrown a birthday party (she is a member of the family, don'tcha know) and recieved many alfalfa blocks, bags of carrots, melons, etc, not to mention curry combs, and so on). In my undeniably untrained opinion, there isn't a healthier cow in the county. And they still tell about the day Blondie got into the bucket of fermenting peaches, got drunk, and went cavorting around her pasture like a two-dollar bar tramp. Took several aunts and hours to corral her in!

Question - Instead of chopping root veggies by hand, couldn't you just lay them out and run over them with a truck (or mini-disc or other farm implement of destruction) until they are suitably pulverized? If you layed out a tarp, or cardboard, or even just did it on grassy land, you could easily rake up the remaining pile o' mush and have at. Am I missing something?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.

Thanks to everyone for your answers. Lots of good ideas here. I knew I could count on you!

Soni - I was thinking about those choppers that make french fries, but that would probably be ridiculously time-consuming for any significant number of animals. The car idea sounds like a good one. I'll keep it in mind for future experiments. Thanks!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), December 17, 2000.

Perhaps run them through a yard chipper.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 17, 2000.

I don't have any personal experience with this but my father told of a neighbor who used to plant a few acres of turnips every year. After their family had taken what they wanted, they would turn the cattle into the field. The cattle would pull the turnips out of the ground and eat them. The ground was fairly sandy so the turnips came out pretty easily. I guess the cows seemed to love them.

If I remember correctly, the 'New Farm' magazine had an article or two about this subject when it was in publication. I can look through some of my old magazines and see if I can find it.

-- Kev in Iowa (pigfarmer@mulefoot.org), December 20, 2000.

We feed our two steers pumpkins left over from Halloween. A local farmer has us haul away all of his leftovers, which last year was 9 pickup truck loads. They're all right if they freeze, but after they freeze and thaw a few times they get mushy. We have a three-sided box that we put the pumpkin in, and then chop it up with an ice chopper (a long-handled tool with a strong flat blade on the end). We feed maybe 4-5 a day, and they last about two months. The steers love it.

-- Erin in VT (dpi@vermontel.net), December 20, 2000.