The Front Porch Swing

[vehve]

Well, seems Karin really has a magical ability of making firsts happen by going away. Now we'e had two new layers come online this weekend. Got a lovely 48g olive egg today, I can't believe that little bird pushed out such a huge egg.

She did crack it though, as she exited the nest about half a minute too early and dropped it on the edge of the pop door to the coop.

 

[wyoDreamer]

What do the farmers use for grain for the animals?
Pretty olive egg, and good sized for a new layer too.

 

[vehve]

What do the farmers use for grain for the animals?
Pretty olive egg, and good sized for a new layer too.

Yeah, I was surprised about the size. Here's the tag from what we're feeding right now.

This is mostly imported ingredients, so there's some corn in this, but for other livestock corn is seldom used.
Here are the contents translated if you don't speak Finnish or Swedish:
Organic wheat 24%, SV2 wheat (What is this?) 18%, Organic soy 17%, Organic corn 10%, Calciumbicarbonate 9%, Organic pressed sunflower 6%, Corngluten 3%, Soybeans 1%, Potatoprotein 0.8%, Grassmeal 0.5%, Monocalciumphosphate 0.5%, poultry premix 0.3%, Rocksalt 0.2%, Sodiumbicarbonate 0.2%, Betaine 0.04%, SSF Premix 0.02%

Some vitamins on the bottom but you might be able to translate those yourself.

 

[perchie.girl]

Here is what I found out about SV2 Wheat

http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/3233/1/P154.pdf

SV2 is a genetic modification to make the wheat rust resistant.... Rust being a fungus which attacks wheat.


For what its worth you don't need corn to feed chickens.

Or livestock. To feed horses in work you can use a number of energy sources. But for the most part plain old grasses or Legumes like Alfalfa, Or Lucern as its called in Europe. can be used. After I bought my horse she has never been fed grain except as a treat. She keeps her weight right at around 1800-2000 lbs. Horses can even eat seaweed so can livestock.

Oats Barley Wheat and other grains can also be used for livestock.... even rice. Barley for chickens is an issue but I dont know all the specifics. Fermenting it is probably the best way to go.

A friend of mine who has been building a farm in the Philippines mixes his own feed using what is local....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...t-of-here-a-diary-of-a-crazy-chicken-man/8550

http://www.cocopoultryfarm.com/Nutrition.html

We in the US have a kind of a sensory overload with all the feed manufacturers out there.... Gotto feed this Gotto feed that.... Ours is best No Ours is best....

Simply stated.... If you look at the needs of your livestock.... and look at what is available in your area... for the most part you can feed your animals on what is locally available. With maybe a source of vitimines and minerals that may be deficient in your area.

deb

 

[vehve]

Here is what I found out about SV2 Wheat

http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/3233/1/P154.pdf

SV2 is a genetic modification to make the wheat rust resistant.... Rust being a fungus which attacks wheat.


For what its worth you don't need corn to feed chickens.

Or livestock. To feed horses in work you can use a number of energy sources. But for the most part plain old grasses or Legumes like Alfalfa, Or Lucern as its called in Europe. can be used. After I bought my horse she has never been fed grain except as a treat. She keeps her weight right at around 1800-2000 lbs. Horses can even eat seaweed so can livestock.

Oats Barley Wheat and other grains can also be used for livestock.... even rice. Barley for chickens is an issue but I dont know all the specifics. Fermenting it is probably the best way to go.

A friend of mine who has been building a farm in the Philippines mixes his own feed using what is local....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...t-of-here-a-diary-of-a-crazy-chicken-man/8550

http://www.cocopoultryfarm.com/Nutrition.html

We in the US have a kind of a sensory overload with all the feed manufacturers out there.... Gotto feed this Gotto feed that.... Ours is best No Ours is best....

Simply stated.... If you look at the needs of your livestock.... and look at what is available in your area... for the most part you can feed your animals on what is locally available. With maybe a source of vitimines and minerals that may be deficient in your area.

deb

Horses, to my understanding, are mainly kept on a diet of grass, with oats as a treat. In winter they eat AIV grass. Some people use some supplements, but that's what's mainly used. Dairy cows are probably the biggest consumer of livestock feed here, but I have no idea what they feed them. In part the same AIV grass in winter, and in summer they are kept in pastures in many places. "Pihatto" is a more and more popular way of keeping cows, don't know what the English term might be. I tried translating it, but "cowshed where the cows are kept unchained" doesn't really roll off your tongue. Anyway, robot feeders, scratchers and milkers, where the cows can just wonder in as they wish. I can ask Karin about the feed once she gets home from bicycling with the labs, as I'm too lazy to ask google at the moment.

 

[Tomtommom]

In Europe cattle gets fed sugar beet. Like we make sugar out of corn or sugarcane, they make sugar from beets, because it grows better there. There's some corn being grown, but it's flint corn, the kind used to feed animals... not the eating kind. My mom used to grow her own, we loved corn on the cob which was really unusual back in the 80s and 90s in Holland

A lot of cattle is grassfed too, because grass grows abundantly in the moderate temperatures in Holland. Wheat grows really well too.

 

[vehve]

I consulted google anyway quickly. One source says our cows mainly eat grass based feed, fresh in the summer, AIV in the winter. In addition grains are used, mainly barley and oats.In addition, byproducts from sugar, (cooking)oil and bakery production is used to some amount. The sugar production byproducts would be sugarbeet based here as well, it's grown pretty widely.

 

[Tomtommom]

Meat tasted differently in Europe... cleaner. I used to love pork, but in the US it has a funky taste.. I find myself wanting to eat it less and less. Probably because everything ate a whole lot more grass. Pigs on the other hand got a lot of scraps

I worked in a bakery, end of the day a farmer came and picked up all the stuff that wasn't sold and gave it to the pigs..

I wouldn't trade living in the US for anything. But I do miss the food supply. It was less tampered with.

 

[enola]

When I visited Europe (10 years ago), there were the neatest vendor carts along side the roads. Usually just a couple of miles outside of towns. They sold rotisserie chickens. The chickens were larger in size than the whole friers you find in our grocery stores. But, the moisture and flavor levels were out of this world. I ate a lot of foods during that trip thst I had never eaten before............I will never forget the delicious chicken we ate.

Now I am wondering if maybe the chicken tasted better because they were not raised on corn?

I have not had really good pork since I left the farm in WV. We raised and butchered our own hogs. My ex didn't feed the hogs much corn at all. Their diet consisted of ground oats and ground barley. All the extra milk and eggs went into the slop bucket. He put the ground feed in the hog bucket every night, stirred in some water and the bucket sat behind the wood cook stove until feeding time the next night.

 

[vehve]

When I visited Europe (10 years ago), there were the neatest vendor carts along side the roads. Usually just a couple of miles outside of towns. They sold rotisserie chickens. The chickens were larger in size than the whole friers you find in our grocery stores. But, the moisture and flavor levels were out of this world. I ate a lot of foods during that trip thst I had never eaten before............I will never forget the delicious chicken we ate.

Now I am wondering if maybe the chicken tasted better because they were not raised on corn?

I have not had really good pork since I left the farm in WV. We raised and butchered our own hogs. My ex didn't feed the hogs much corn at all. Their diet consisted of ground oats and ground barley. All the extra milk and eggs went into the slop bucket. He put the ground feed in the hog bucket every night, stirred in some water and the bucket sat behind the wood cook stove until feeding time the next night.

Usually if you speak to people who work with livestock here, they don't have very good things to say about corn. It's cheap and energy packed, but it's a pretty one-sided diet. I've grown up with the understanding that you get large animals with bland tasting meat if their diet is mainly corn based. Seems to go along with your findings.

I think Finnish pork tastes very good. You can make some wonderful dishes with it, but it should usually be cooked slowly to get the most out of it. Here's a lovely recipe for pork shanks, making a whole meal in one oven pan, in today's edition of Cooking and Carpentry with Felix:

Pork Shanks

2 kg pork shanks
a bottle of ale
honey
dijon mustard
olive oil
salt
pepper
thyme
3 large onions
2 apples
2 carrots
potatoes

Make a mixture of honey, mustard, oil, salt, pepper and thyme, the consistency should be like a paste. Stick little holes through the skin of the shanks with a knife. Rub them with the paste. Cut the onions in 1cm thick slices, and lay them out on the bottom of a large oven pan. Place the shanks on top, and roast at 225 degrees C until you get a bit of color on the meat and the onions start to cook. Chop up the apples and vegetables, and place them around the shanks, pour the ale in the pan. Cook at 100 degrees C for a couple of hours.