[dominiquer60]

We are ready to cut Wednesday as soon as threat of T-storms is over, looks like we may have a good 4 days to get some crop in whether we small bale or chop it for the trench, is yet to be determined.

[dominiquer60]

Here is a discussion on anther couple forums

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-236929.html
http://forum.horsetopia.com/health-nutrition/139980-winter-rye.html

[dominiquer60]

After years of using fabric pads Sam has converted to all vinyl, all the time and has yet to have a collar sore problem since changing over. This spring we started turning all the horses out together to get the mares more exercise and social time, they had a lot of play together, but teeth have been involved a few times and a couple received a bite right under the collar. We made sure to keep collar pads and shoulders clean and even with some heavy work the bite wounds healed right up. A couple of them have slimmed down to a better work weight and even with adjustable collars sucked right down, they are still a little big, but we have yet find a problem under a vinyl pad. I am not saying it won’t happen, but after years with the other pads, the vinyl has been a big improvement.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks Wild Millers,

Wow $8! It is $6 off the wagon $7.50 out of the loft here, I sold a couple dozen bales this morning, both parties were glad that there was still some on the wagon 🙂

[dominiquer60]

We still use this one a lot, sap wagon, raking hay, moving wagons around, irrigation wagon, prom pictures, you name it.

[dominiquer60]

We are hoping that we can bale tomorrow, supposed to be a bit cloudy, but it may only amount to 100 bales but
we need it. Horses have be eating our better mulch hay along with limited time on pasture.

[dominiquer60]

We just cut some sparse fields this morning, A) because they are not heavy and should dry well and B) We want to lime them while we are borrowing a spreader for other purposes, maybe a little Sul-Po-Mag too.

Sunday we baled 5 acres of beautiful clean rye straw. I am looking forward to the luxury of mulching just about everything after a couple cultivations, onions and broccoli will get it tomorrow.

[dominiquer60]

That very snowy winter a couple years ago, my steers were young calves and while in the barn I picked every foot up every day and rasped once a month just because. They are better steers for it. There must have been something in the air because I trimmed mine last night too 🙂

[dominiquer60]

I used to be part of raising 1,000 broilers a year. We used a 18% grower for the first 3-4 days, we found that the higher 21% these first few days would cause them to paste over. Then on to the 21% for the first 4 weeks free choice. We try to give them some access to grass weeks 2-4 so that they get a taste for it. If you offer a high quality pasture with red and/or white clover in it they do really well and you could raise them on a lower protein feed if they are good grazers. Also once they are out on pasture I agree with Brad, feed twice a day, we gave them enough so that most of the feed was gone within an hour with just a little to clean up during the day. Our birds were far from lean on this feeding schedule. One other thing, to encourage grazing we would move the birds first thing in the morning to fresh pasture and give them about an hour (while we did other chores) to graze hard, then we would feed them grain, this really made them hungry for the green stuff.

Turkeys can be tough for some, I have a few friends that raise them and their best advice to me is to keep them under lights longer than you would the broilers, they do well with a couple weeks of 90 degrees. They also really do better on the 22-24% turkey and game starter and then the grower, though I have one friend that feeds the same 18% (after turkey starter) to all stock both winged and four legged.

In regards to feeding layer ration to broilers to grow out, the typical 16% layer ration can be enough if you have a good pasture with legumes that they will eat, but the extra calcium in the layer ration has been known to cause growth problems in young birds both layers and broiler, so its use for broilers has been discouraged. I would guess that your mill probably just doesn’t move enough broiler feed to justify even small batches.

Best of luck and if you get some that become weak and start to die off, it could be a vitamin deficiency, our old mill didn’t always do a great job mixing the vit/min pack into the feed, so we would often used generic vit/min powder in the water to solve this problem.

Best of luck

[dominiquer60]

George,

There are still hats, t-shirts and bumper stickers for sale. You can send payment to Bekah Perry at DAPNet Address: 509 Dutton Brook Lane, Brownington, Vermont 05860 Phone: 802-763-0771

[dominiquer60]

We thought about mowing yesterday morning, but showers were a slight chance in the forecast. Looks like we should have but oh well, lots of other stuff to do like discing quackgrass and curing rye for straw so that we can plow and plant corn.

[dominiquer60]

It is interesting Tim.

Food used to be denser in nutrients, so in theory we didn’t need to eat as much as we do now for the same amount of nutrition. Though plant genetics play a big part in nutrient density, there are so many other factors. Soil vs hydroponic and Conventional vs. Organic. I can’t find the paper now but I recall a study comparing the nutrient densities of various crops from various areas, some were organic, some were conventional. High quality soils produced the most nutrient dense crops, but in the same/similar soil organic practices came out ahead a little. And Hydroponic, don’t get me started, i just don’t see how a liquid system can beat soil microbes at delivering what a plant needs and wants to thrive AND have nutrient dense foods. Plants and soil microbes have a relationship that has taken eons to develop, we can’t expect to come in and replicate such a system.

Anyway, there is so much that we could improve upon with our food system, it looks like having more nutrient dense food (though breeding and soil health) would leave to us using less water and eating less to get the nutrients that we need.

[dominiquer60]

Here is our JD with the weeder attached.

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[dominiquer60]

Yes the full 7′ are behind the wheels, I will try to get a picture.

[dominiquer60]

I love the innovations that you have come up with! Having no Homesteader I cannot add to them at all, but I am glad to see someone utilizing this tool so well. I just came in from tine weeding my potatoes, I have the same weeder, but I use it on our JD cultivator. The JD is very uncomfortable compared to the McCormick Deering and the steering is very poor also, so it’s use is dedicated to the tine weeder in potatoes, corn, etc. We simply use a couple bolts and boards to clamp it onto the back of the gangs under the seat. I am glad that there was enough room on the Homesteader for you to make use of such a great tool.

Thanks for sharing you innovations and pictures.

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