Economic Effects
Healthier livestock
Feeding high nutritional density forages should produce healthier livestock with fewer health related expenses. Growth rates should be higher, milk production increased, appearance enhanced, and performance improved. Grain rations can be cut back to reflect the higher protein feeds. Horses perform better if you are showing or breeding. Good quality forage makes a big difference. We raise horses and have had horses almost all my life. Finding quality hay consistently is always an issue. There are different ideas regarding the perfect feed for horses, and much depends on what they are doing. We like a mix of alfalfa and grass. We focus perhaps too much on the alfalfa. There is a fair amount of orchard grass in our hay, and this too is an excellent feed, particularly when grown with alfalfa. The alfalfa provides a great deal of nitrogen to the orchard grass, and since the alfalfa and orchard grass are competing for sunlight, they both tend to grow more vigorously. The only issue with orchard grass is that it gets course if allowed to get too mature. We raise late maturing orchard grass strains and cut it early. Only the first cutting forms heads, so later cuttings consist of fine leaves. Orchard grass runs around 12% protein when grown with alfalfa and is significantly more nutritious than timothy. Alfalfa runs from 18 to 24% protein and is higher than most grain supplements. Many commercial livestock feeds use poorly digestible waste grain products that are of little value other than for the fiber. Typical course mulch quality mixed grass hay is lucky to have 5% protein, with limited vitamins and minerals animals need for maximum performance. We provide analysis results for our forages. Use this for developing your ration. See the attachments for the tissue test and the Dairyland forage analysis for our 2022 hay. The tissue tests provides excellent insight into the mineral content of the hay. The UP is known to be deficient in selenium. Our hay has high selenium. The Forage analysis includes a lot of very specific data. The RFQ rating (Relative Forage Quality) is probably the most important rating in the test. Late cut grass and weed hay is lucky to have a RFQ of 50. Our analysis for an alfalfa/orchard grass hay is comes in at 162.54. Any rating above 150 is considered very premium hay, particularly with some grass present. The analysis costs money, and you do not need to spend your money to get this information. Chances are high that you can cut or possibly eliminate feeding grain. If you feed high quality forages like you feed mulch hay, you are missing opportunities and wasting money. How you feed your animals is your business, but we encourage you to apply a little science. Dairy people typically understand this area pretty well.
Like many things, nature tends to be recursive. What this means is that the output from one step, is the input to the next. Consider the picture within a picture. Amino acids take energy to assemble, and they are recycled in nature.
When a plant dies, it is eaten by microbes, the microbes are eaten by bigger soil critters, and they are eaten by even bigger critters. This is the old food chain. They were talking about amino acids on the basic level. If you feed livestock that are in the human food chain, your animals not only grow better because they are healthier, but their milk and meat is also healthier with better nutritional density. Diet matters. Although animals do not die instantly if they eat poorly balanced diets, they are not doing well and their bodies become deficient in key elements, minerals, and vitamins. We all know people that are seriously overweight suffering from multiple afflictions. In most cases, too many carbs, and not enough fruits and vegetables and protein is the source of their problem. When standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, I cannot help but notice the correlation between body mass index, and what is in the grocery cart. This is not rocket science! By feeding your animals a healthy diet, their meat or milk has a better nutritional profile. You hear a lot about Omega 3 VS Omega 6 fatty acids in human diets. People eat fish like salmon because of it’s higher omega 3 content. They are discouraged from eating beef, because of it’s reputation for having a high Omega 6 fatty acids. What you don’t always hear is that Salmon have high Omega 3 levels primarily because they eat Krill, which are very high in Omega 3 fatty acids. This is because krill eat algae and plankton which are high is omega 3. Cattle are fed corn and dried distiller’s grain which are very high in Omega 6 fatty acids. The old line that you are what you eat rings true! Feed cattle forages grown on healthy soils supported by healthy microbes, and the fatty acid profile looks more like salmon than corn fed beef. Grass fed meat is dramatically better, and some people understand this and are willing to pay for it. The bottom line here is that your livestock production using nutrient dense feeds, grown on healthy soils, will be healthier for those consuming it, and people who understand this, are willing to pay more for it. Achieving healthy soils is a journey without an endpoint!
I attended a soils conference recently that featured Rick Haney as one of a line of distinguished speakers. Rick developed the early understanding of the potential of Regenerative Agriculture, and the realization that the soil literally breathes. Microbes breathe in oxygen and exhale Carbon Dioxide, and you can measure the Carbon Dioxide concentrations to determine the activity of microbes and in the process, to assess soil health. This test has become known as the Haney test and is something we will be evaluating in 2023 to fine tune our practices. As I learn more about soils, microbes, and plants, the more I realize just how important soil microbes are.
Key nutrients
The microbes recycle the amino acids in dead plant tissues and make what we call organic matter which is then eaten by larger critters. If the microbes did not break down the dead plants, the soils would quickly run out of key nutrients the plants need, and smother in dead plant debris. Without the plants there would be nothing for animals to eat. It gets even worse! Without the plants, there would be no oxygen since they are the primary source for our planet.
Our home the Earth
Rick Haney had an assessment I thought was pretty profound. He described our home, Earth. He said that “We live on a plant-based planet, powered by a star”! The lowly microbes in the soil feed off exudates the plants produce from sunlight, and in the process are responsible for sustaining the plants, and all life on earth. Current agricultural practices rip up the soils, destroying the microbes, particularly the fungi. Pesticides, fungicides, and excessive fertilizer applications are also very damaging.
Quality Products from Us to You
Much of the best soil in the country is actually unhealthy and loosing organic matter. The commodity crops produced on these unhealthy soils are feed the livestock that produce the meats we eat. This is not particularly healthy food! You have the potential to do much better, and potentially profit from growing customer awareness of the benefits from eating healthy!!!
