Michelle wrote > That has led us back to bringing cattle on the farm. We intend to learn to > put as much standing feed through our animals as we can. That includes > planting oats as a green manure crop early in March and grazing before corn > planting in May, grazing on cover crops planted behind wheat harvest, > grazing some standing corn etc, etc. This system looks like it combines > many good things. It can utilize green manure crops for both weed control > and soil improvement as well as providing feed for cattle while they in turn > are providing manure for the soils. And we are tending to view this place > as a feed farm instead of a cash grain operation. Our conventional system
Michelle: Green manure crops work best if turned back in with as much bulk as possible. Feeding off to livestock is just not the same unless you collect the manure and compost it and respread it. In fact by feeding it off you are depleting your soil and unless you have high biological activity the manure will just lay there for some time. A thought from Oz David C
