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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 8, 2011 21:56:06 GMT -5
Jerusalem Artichoke Improves Pig Diets
According to a study "Economic Evaluation of Nutritional Strategies that Affect Manure Volume, Nutrient Content, and Odor Emissions" conducted by the University of Minnesota's Department of Animal Science, Jerusalem artichoke would be a great addition to pig diets. The following are comments the authors made regarding the tuber: Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is a native North American plant having a tuber that grows underground. The tubers are high in inulin, which can be broken down to fructooligosaccharide, a carbohydrate. Adding Jerusalem artichoke to growing pig diets has resulted in faster growth and improved feed conversion. In addition, inulin appears to increase growth of bifidobacteria in the pig, reducing diarrhea and swine manure odor. Farnworth et al., 1995, conducted a sensory evaluation study to characterize the smell of fresh (less than 4 hours) swine manure obtained from pigs fed 0 percent, 3 percent and 6 percent Jerusalem artichoke. As shown in table 1, swine manure from pigs fed Jerusalem artichoke smelled sweeter, less sharp and pungent, and had less skatole than pigs fed the control diet. The observed changes in pig manure and subsequent odor are most likely due to the positive influence of Jerusalem artichoke on bifidobacteria in the intestinal microflora.
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Post by davida on Nov 8, 2011 22:24:48 GMT -5
Holly,
I am not Oxbow but would love to tell you about my Jersey milk cow, Peaches. She is a large part of furnishing natural food to my family consisting of milk, butter, yogurt, kiefer and cheeses. I am blessed that both of my children and their familes live within 3 miles so it is my desire to furnish my grandbabies with natural foods. This mindset helps to keep the Doomsday Challenge rewarding and the work more enjoyable.
We first milked 20 years ago when the diaries started adding hormones to the milk. The children got older and the cow died so the milking ceased. When I starting considering becoming more self sufficient, we added chickens for the eggs and also to prepare additional garden beds. We use the horse trailer as the chicken house and move it to virgin ground every 4 months. We have the chicken runs (new garden beds ) at 16' by 50'. We add compost to the chicken run and I double dig and the chickens have a blast getting worms and breaking up the soil. The grandchilden and I greatly enjoy the chickens and the eggs are fantastic but this did not furnish the volume of food that I desired to supplement the garden. So we started searching for a Jersey family milk cow.
At this point, let me add that I believe that one weakness in many food storage plans is the lack of fat. If times are tough, fat will be needed in worker's diets and especially in children's diet. Therefore, the Jersey with a high fat content and wonderful personality was my choice of breeds. I am a firm believer in hand milking the family cow (if the cow is clean and my hands are clean, I know the milk is clean for the family). We found Peaches and started another education. To have a life, I made a deal with a young man that I trusted to milk 5 times a week and I milk 9 times a week. I furnish the cow, pasture, feed and all expenses and he keeps the milk from his milkings and he is great to help when I need him. If you are going to milk, I greatly recommend finding someone the help. Milking 730 times a year without a break is not my idea of a life.
This is getting long so I will stop but will gladly answer any questions.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 9, 2011 5:16:03 GMT -5
Holly, I agree with most of what David said there about the usefulness and dietary contribution of a cow. I just disagree with him about the appropriateness of a Jersey for homesteading or especially a SHTF situation. Jersey's are amazing cows in a lot of way, but they are NOT by any means low maintenance. They are the second most popular dairy breed and have had a lot of recent intense breeding work (which mostly means INBREEDING work) done on them to maximize milk yields while still keeping the high protein and high butterfat components. All of this in a very small package. This means that their genetics programing them for milk production is pushed right out to the edge of what their metabolism is capable of maintaining. They are incredibly prone to metabolic disruptions like milk fever, grass fever, and ketosis. A dairy farmer I know personally routinely treats every Jersey for milk fever at every freshening before they even start showing symptoms. In a SHTF situation you do not want a cow that you have to give an IV of calcium every time she gives birth. Plus for the average homesteader/small farmer it is really difficult to give them the kind of high energy/ high protein diets required to really maximize their maximum milk potential.
That being said, I really like Jersey genetics as a cross bred. That is what we have. Daisy is a Jersey/ Scottish Highland cross. She gives us about a third of the milk a full blood jersey would give, but she does it on marginal pasture and really crappy hay without any grain. And she gives a huge amount of butterfat, we've never had it analyzed but the jars often had 1/3 cream on top after 12 hours in the fridge when we weren't sharing with the calf. When you share with the calf she doesn't give nearly as much cream.
The nice benefit of a dairy cross is you still get a pretty good amount of milk but the benefit of the hybrid vigor for health and vitality. Daisy has never shown any signs of illness or any metabolic disruption, shrugs off the cold and the heat. Just a really low maintenance cow. And we've trained her to the single yoke and she moves a lot of our firewood every year.
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Post by davida on Nov 9, 2011 10:34:48 GMT -5
Thanks for the great idea to do a Scottish Highland cross with Peaches. A Jersey definitely would not train to a yoke. If you know where we could find a Jersey/Scottish Highland mix, please PM.
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Post by steev on Nov 9, 2011 11:25:54 GMT -5
templeton, the trouble with eating Chinese is that you're hungry again in an hour.
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 9, 2011 13:25:09 GMT -5
Oxbow, how hard would it be to ship me a Daisy daughter? I saw the highland cattle at the rare breeds show out here. They were beautiful fuzzy/furry things. (I love cows). We used to raise Merinos and Karakuls and Romneys. Now I just have the chickens. We've done pig before as well. Spouse says, "Not again". This is Princess, the queen of dairy cows at McClelland Dairy in Petaluma. I milked her for about 20 minutes, by hand Mr. McClelland said it would take 4 hours, and the cow would be annoyed. I'm really looking for a cow that's sturdy. I have even considered a goat, but they are sooo mischievous. When the electric goes off, I won't be able to keep the animals in. Right now I'm buying Jersey milk raw from Claravale, but it is no way cheap. This farm doesn't have a big budget for things like fences, water tanks, solar and wind arrays.... Attachments:
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Post by davida on Nov 9, 2011 14:02:40 GMT -5
You certianly would not want to hand milk a mega milk producer. But for a family cow, Peaches gives 1 3/4 gallons of milk per milking and we can milk her in 13 minutes so hand milking is not a problem.
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Post by nuts on Nov 9, 2011 16:06:14 GMT -5
I don't like to think so much about doomsday and so,because in a total chaos and food shortage it's those with the best guns that have the food.
I'm just interested in growing food.I would very probably give my food to the gunmen and starve myself.
But I like to think about self suffficiency.
How much land do you need ffor feeding one person.If you count only calories,I estimate something like 400 square meters (0.04 hectare or about 0.08 acres)can provide the calories if you're garden is performant.With a yield of 5000kg wheat/hectare you would have200 kg wheat a year that's 200/365=0.55kg wheat/day.
With potatoes and corn,you could even yield more calories.0.55 kg wheat a day seems a lot to me,so you can grow some onions carrots,beans and such for a better menu instead
Well this is just my rough estimation.I you complicate the menu the maths become complicated too.
I think that you need a fairly small surface to feed one person.With a moderate carnivore menu probably you have maybe to double this surface but even then I think you need maximum 1/10 hectare(1/5 acre)for 1 person but probably less.
Any thoughts?
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Post by zachary on Nov 9, 2011 21:09:36 GMT -5
Will the world end in 2012? Who knows? But it's as good a year as any to be prepared for self-sufficiency. I thought it would be fun to see how many of us can prepare for the worst next year. The goal: be able to feed yourself from December 21, 2012 through the winter to, say April 21, 2013. Thoughts? Should it be 3 months instead of four? Anything goes. While I think the focus should be on growing plants, hunting and raising livestock would also count. Stocking up would count - we want the city folks to have a shot! What about water? For most people stocking up is about the only option. Four months worth of rations isn't all that big a challenge if a person is willing to tolerate boring meals. I've got a large lot, but it's almost entirely trees and grass. My very small tiller is good for cultivation, but for breaking new ground it's worthless. I'd have to resort to a shovel if nobody was available to hire. Starting about the first of 2002, I began to give the matter of growing enough food to eat some serious thought. It was plain the Texas Torturer was going to start a war with Iraq no matter what anybody wanted. Anyone who bothered to look could see the little twit was lying about Iraq's nukes, but I was uneasy about that nation's potential for biowar. Such stuff is both cheap and easy. So I concentrated acquiring seeds of the non-standard stuff like sunflowers, turnips, and the vining crops like pumpkins and squash. These were to supplement the dry beans stored in the 5-gallon buckets. What I liked about the beans was that they could be planted as well as cooked. Yes, grocery store soup beans are all bush types, but that would be better than nothing. Later I bought seed of the pole types with the aim of using corn as the poles. Being pessimistic is playing safe, so these days I assume nobody would be available to plow up the yard. So I have a quart of concentrated generic glycophosphate weed killer I'd use to spot-kill the grass. Those spots would be dug up with a shovel or grubbing hoe and planted in corn hills. I have a few pounds of roundup-ready corn seed, but those are really a frill. Ordinary corn will do just fine. Plant the pole beans after the corn is well established, and at about the same time some of the vining crops. I'd want some really aggressive types to smother the rest of the grass and any weeds. The beans I'd harvest as hull-outs, for with our local fall climate the beans in the pods tend to mold, or even rot. First year I'd can them, for I'd not be set up with proper drying equipment. For that a person needs canning lids. LOTS of canning lids. And lots of good jars. I prefer half gallons to conserve lids. I'd plan on reusing the lids at least once. (yes, it's an awful idea, but we're assuming an awful situation.) Drying the corn would be have to be done - somehow. Perhaps I'd be able to put together a quickie corn crib. A few years ago I stored some dry-looking corn in a 5 gallon bucket for later feeding to the squirrels, and it all went to mold! The dry corn can be made into hominy for canning or drying, and it can be ground into meal as needed. The latter is lots of work when done by hand. I've often wondered if popped popcorn could be substituted for meal in any recipes...... Shelling the corn? I'd plant every grain of Gourdseed I've got, for doing the job by hand is pure hell otherwise. My primary vining plant would probably be Waltham Butternut. It has a high resistance to the borers we're plagued with around here, and ought not to be too interesting to either 2 or 4 legged predators. I've got a pound of seed in a jar. Potatoes? For some reason I can't grow them anymore. They're simply no longer productive enough to bother with. I have no idea why that's the case, for years ago I considered myself very good with this crop. I wish I had a dwarf sunflower with large seeds like the Burpee Super Snack variety. The summer winds around here tend to flatten the large & shallow rooted tall types. A few years ago I planted a single Sunspot dwarf inside a circle of the Super Snacks, and found it didn't produce any seeds at all. I don't know what I did wrong, and never tried again. I've got a few hundred seeds of the Snackjack hulless pumpkin. The theory is that few people would bother stealing them. The downside is that they MUST be sprayed to keep out those borers. Not only the short vines, but the freaking fruits are riddled with holes if you don't. Since we're talking reverse jackpot, you've got to assume drought. I have a generator to run the pump until the gasoline runs out. After that I've got a well bucket. Whale of a lot of work, but eating is also a lot better than not eating. In the yard are some nut trees which I currently leave for the squirrels. I found out rather late that butternuts are totally without flavor, but come the disaster I'd collect them all. They make fabulous fuel for a wood stove, and if things got really bad a person could do what the Indians did - smash them, boil them, and skim off the oil. Getting enough dietary fat from plants is a pretty serious problem. Early on, live chickens would be a high-priced item. If I could get a few, I'd keep them in a movable cage - what they call a Chicken Tractor. If I found room for some sunflowers I might be able to swap the dried heads for a few baby birds the next year. My apple trees might not get sprayed, but a few worms won't hurt them for making vinegar. No, I've never done it, but I have the books telling how. You'd need a bit of tilled/cultivated garden in any event. Tomatoes for sure. I'd concentrate on Double Rich for the vitamin C and maybe Caro Red for the carotenes. Onions, of course. The best keepers will hold until late spring of the next year. |
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spud
gopher
Posts: 43
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Post by spud on Nov 9, 2011 22:25:06 GMT -5
No way I could do it. I would be doing it (myself for a family of four). I currently have a nice stash of dried beans, four different varieties. Some spuds and stuff in freezer and dried also. I don't think it would be all that hard if one wouldn't have to deal with thieves and such. I shared milking responsibilities with my friends boer goat and she gave us a half gallon every day. I kind of like goats cause if push came to shove you could feed them bush and branches also. Local nuts should be a bigger part diet and so should poultry cause you can get a bunch of offspring from one set of parents, can't do that with cattle. Kale would also be a major green for me since it's so hardy, but currently I'm the only one eating in the family. If things got ugly, I might prefer to die defending myself than to live like a rat.
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Post by blujckt on Nov 10, 2011 15:30:07 GMT -5
"Independence Days" is a good book on the subject, talks about gardening some and buying some, mostly from local sustainable sources. We buy a whole cow every year so our meat is covered a year at a time. We have a flock of chickens for eggs and sometimes raise broilers for the freezer too. They can reproduce since we also have a rooster, and those that no longer lay can be stewed. Deer are plentiful and who cares if they are in season if the situation is dire? I'd like to dig a pond, but until I do, my neighbor has one and I'm only a couple miles from a reservoir, my property has drainage issues so I don't think water will be a problem. We have a generator to keep the freezer going without power, and I know how to can, and I can a lot. I need to get some of those tattler reusable lids though. I buy a couple things for storage each month, recent purchases included 100 pounds of organic soybeans, and 8 cases of diced tomatoes(bad garden year for me and all my tomatoes were made into sauce and salsa) and two cases of canned black beans. I always stock up on canning jars at the end of the season or when they are on sale, they are getting harder and harder to find at garage sales. We need to get our fireplace changed out from gas to wood/pellet and a blower added to heat the main room when the power goes out, it can get really cold with no fan for the gas furnace. Pigs and honey bees will be added to the list of new acquisitions next spring. There is a fish farm down the road, even if I don't have the pond done yet to be stocked, we can always raise fish in the above ground kiddie pool, it's 20 feet by 4 feet deep. A milk cow would be good but we don't have the fencing for one yet, and the idea of milking twice a day is daunting, unless you really are in a survival type situation. I would like to put in a cistern to catch and store the roof rainwater runoff though, that would take care of the garden at least. I have a micro filter that can clean water from anywhere to make it fit for people, we use it every year in the boundary waters. While my armaments are few at this time, my neighbors are well armed, and we all have dogs, big dogs. I expect to add to my armaments every Christmas and Birthday til the day I die. Right now my immediate family of nine could go six months or so from today, they might not prefer everything we would be eating, but it would be palatable and nutritionally adequate.
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Post by steev on Nov 10, 2011 16:20:23 GMT -5
Hunger adds savor to the plainest fare.
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Post by MikeH on Nov 10, 2011 20:27:32 GMT -5
>>Why a year? Because that's the maximum time frame between harvests in a temperate climate. Thanks for another dot in the puzzle. I'd been all around the edges of it but not seen it. Regards, Mike |
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Post by templeton on Nov 11, 2011 7:00:41 GMT -5
All of this talk of guns and armaments sounds really strange from this side of the globe ...I live in a country town, and i can think of only one person I know who owns firearms - for shooting feral pigs, he was worried about his elderly father getting bailed up - and he lives 5 hours away...It's a real cultural difference, I guess.
But I suppose it is on a doomsday thread...
T
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 11, 2011 9:48:45 GMT -5
Yep, cultural. Guns are part of rural life here in the US at least. I own a few. They can be handy for nuisance predator control (dog, racoon, possum, coyotes (if you are incredibly lucky)). They are also useful for nusiance pest control (deer, rabbit, crow, turkey, Canada Goose).
I have my personal doubts about how useful they would be in a SHTF situation. In my opinion the best thing in that situation is having a good strong friendship with your neighbors and becoming an asset for them by helping them survive the initial chaos with food, seed, and community. If things really do fall apart, we'll all need old fashioned communities that come together for house raisings, barn raisings, births, deaths, corn shuckings, quilting bees, etc.
The idea that you can stock your bunker with beans and ammo and ride it out is a common and popular idea among a certain subculture here in the US. I believe that it is a fallacy that fails to account for basic human nature the same way that extreme socialism is a fallacy. Socialism fails because human beings are not ants. The Go-it-alone-in-my-bunker ethos would fail in my opinion because human beings are not tigers. We are self centered selfish creatures that evolved to function best in small social groups. Obviously this is all my own opinion.
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