tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post5534575670951990993..comments2023-12-15T02:04:08.213-08:00Comments on meat: Growing your own feedBruce Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10995706761794063165noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-26948605501465114112015-06-07T10:04:11.411-07:002015-06-07T10:04:11.411-07:00Bill: regarding what you can and cannot grow, I c...Bill: regarding what you can and cannot grow, I can't tell you the number of people that have told me point-blank that I can't grow alfalfa here in western washington. That I shouldn't even try. Now I cheated a bit -- the local agricultural extension did a field study with a bunch of varieties of alfalfa and found 5 or 6 strains that did well, and I chose to plant one of those strains, so I had good reason to think it would grow, and it did. Happy with it. <br /><br />regarding "it's pointless to grown your own hay or grain" -- that deserves a longer responseBruce Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995706761794063165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-39809276936191385912015-06-07T09:54:46.819-07:002015-06-07T09:54:46.819-07:00George: I agree with you on the 7000. It's a ...George: I agree with you on the 7000. It's a simple and effective machine that actually works to plant my pumpkins/squash as well, so I'll have straight rows of them this year (read: cultivatable, machine-weedable), too. Happy about that. <br /> A grain roaster may be the next thing; I can feed high-moisture corn to the pigs directly, even a little fermented, out of my silage pit if need be. I'd rather store it dry in a bin (easier access to the feed), but it depends on how well I can get it to dry down in the field. <br /><br />Grid planting - have a reference I can look at to see what you're talking about? I purchased some cultivators that people have been using on sweet corn, 8 row / 30" rows that match the planter, so I'll be weeding the corn with them this year, but only between the rows, not in the row. <br />Bruce Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995706761794063165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-52124663060069107102015-06-07T08:10:09.128-07:002015-06-07T08:10:09.128-07:00Congrats on getting the 7000 in fine working order...Congrats on getting the 7000 in fine working order, they are a great, affordable piece of planting equipment. If for some reason you have issues w/ the corn not drying down enough come harvest time, we have brought in a grain roaster to roast the corn and cool it. It then gets put directly into the grain bin for storage. <br /><br />I'm eager to one day be on my own farm (currently managing 165ac of someone else's) and try out that grid planting method for corn I've read about. It's not so important for no till, chemical farmers, but for the organic or tillage type farm it looks to be an interesting method to save on labor (no time cultivating), without drastically reducing yields.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16948064168681062105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1842136564899097734.post-55575792266890984272015-06-07T04:08:26.234-07:002015-06-07T04:08:26.234-07:00I'm interested to see this from your PNW persp...I'm interested to see this from your PNW perspective. Here in New England, I've always read that it's pointless to grow your own hay and your own corn. The savings after the cost (labor, land, seed) to grow far exceeds what you could make as profit growing alternate crops and buying feed. Bill Gauchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01287284061932329662noreply@blogger.com