On Oct 31, 2015, at 5:14 PM, knarf <knarftheria...@gmail.com> wrote: > Corn or wheat silage is a very common feed ration ingredient to be used. It > can account for the forage and concentrate portion of the diet. Silage is the > entire plant (seed and stalk), harvested in an earlier stage with higher > moisture, then stored in an anaerobic environment (without oxygen) where > fermentation occurs and breaks down the plant cell walls."
One of the places I go past on my regular rides often has a big silage pile fermenting away close to the road, but it's not sealed very well (maybe it's ripe stuff waiting for use). It stinks something nasty. I don't know how the cows eat the stuff. Probably the same way that cats will happily eat cat food. Cows here in NZ eat grass, supplemented with other foods as needed. The dairy industry makes huge amounts of money by exporting to China but it comes at an environmental cost, both from leaching nutrients and effluent. While the ruminants are treated fairly well here I can't say the same for pigs or chickens. It's a pain buying free-range eggs as its legal definition, if there even is one, is so watered-down as to be almost meaningless. The suppliers love playing the "out of sight, out of mind" game. If we knew more about where our food came from we might be more selective. Cheers, Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
