- Location
- Derbyshire UK
Instead of growing straight spring barley try a pea & spring barley mix. No bagged fert, one spray (pendermethrin pre em), 3t/acre on good ground.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
Johnny Whiteheads
Member
Same here in Ireland, my butcher has same complaints. €300 to kill and box a small Jersey cow. He has flat charge regardless of weight
- Location
- somerset
apart from being illegal now, not sure about this, when allowed, carcass in the dung heap broke down quickly, proper job, but, just having had a blackleg scare, on 'churned' up kale, and we dug a pipe in across it, does it stay in the soil, most clodistridal diseases are soil carried.
A trivial pursuits answer, we know a police forensic scientist, talking about things, he reckoned a muck heap would destroy any dna, so unable to test, also, if body parts pass through a pig, dna virtually impossible to test, me, i wouldn't have a clue, he should know.
What was the cost before?I don’t think so.all three butchers I use regularly ( I’m very lucky to have a choice between: 1)they pick up and do everything, 2)They kill here and remove,3) I bring in a killed animal and they cut it up) nand they have all recently been complaining about the rising cost of all waste removal.
I’m not happy either. Hung weight 650lb carcass was 703.00$ canadian cut up and frozen ,not including the killing which was done in our yard in the snow
Buck a pound cut and wrap is fairly normal here. Can find some less, can pay more for ego butchers or vacuum sealing.
A true compost gets fairly hot. Not sure how many bacteria would be able to survive.
That said, those things are in the environment anyway. Clostridiums aren’t a huge issue here but they are included in almost everyone’s vaccination protocol. The scary one is when anthrax pops out.
However vaguely knowing how these bacteria and spores live, having a thick layer or litter and not making animals graze right down to the dirt should be a great additional protection against picking up a large, infectious load of them. You want to keep the microbes in the cows digestive system healthy and balanced for her best health. Keep the soil microbes as balanced and healthy as you can and logically there shouldn’t be such hotspots of harmful bacteria.
I’m currently battling mange in my barn/house cat population. All cats have demodex mites on their skin, but for whatever reason the population on these cats became unbalanced and exploded. The trick is to try and get the balance of skin mites back in play.
The micro community is a little House of Commons. All about checks and balances between the microorganisms. Be they skin microbes, gastro intestinal microbes or soil microbes.
It would be interesting to see how common soil born pathogens were pre intensive farming when the soil and land weren’t so consistently stressed. The animals wouldn’t have been vaccinated to get a false representation of occurrence. If the pathogens were in the soil in large amounts the animals population should have quickly shown it. All I can think is it would have been a limiting factor in keeping bull populations down because of their wallows
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ah but what about bones?
- Location
- somerset
this came up talking about a farmer, who was charged with killing his wife, and feeding her to the pigs, so don't know about the bones, but having disposed of a fair few rabbits that way,(shot) there isn't any sign of them left. The conversations about the bodies found in the fred west case, wasn't nice, he helped out on that.
But the dung heap never left to many bones after a couple of years. Blackleg, very occasionally gets suspected, then we treat, as the last bit expired in 2011, not a major problem till it happens, and i think our 2 were bloat. Muddy kale field, trench dug through, 2 +2 =5.
But the dung heap never left to many bones after a couple of years. Blackleg, very occasionally gets suspected, then we treat, as the last bit expired in 2011, not a major problem till it happens, and i think our 2 were bloat. Muddy kale field, trench dug through, 2 +2 =5.
Bones don’t mean DNA.
eh?theres DNA in bones thats what i meant and the pigs wont digest them even if they could chew them even burnt bones can give it up if they arent too burnt
Yes, there is DNA in bones. But that doesn’t mean just because you find a bone you can extract useable DNA. Old bones in the field, burnt bones, digested bones, composted bones.... DNA degrades just over time. Put it in any scenario and you can increase its degradation.
Look at Robert Pickton. They found a variety of small bone pieces amongst his pigs yet the ones they could actually get DNA from and convict him for murdering is very slim compared to the number of women he’s expected of murdering.
- Location
- Devon
Was thinking this. And whst about botulism?
Yes no cob at all, I'm guessing you wouldn't bother with the wide rows or PP it because there wouldn't be enough vo lume there otherwise. Must grow back pretty good because he talking up to 10 cuts and the tonnage was seemed impressive but I can't remember exactly what that was!!
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
Thanks @Blaithin. I went and checked my records:.60c/lb to cut and wrap in 2014, .70c in 2016,.85c now for vacuum sealing . But irritant is the $60.00 for disposing of the ( usable) hide. As they say, farming is the only business where you pay freight both ways.
Normal Pete's thread talk, Urea, Multicut maize and now body disposal.... This thread has wandered a bit since I last looked at it
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
My dogs are constantly digging up old bones they have buried. Juliette de bairacli Levy, the herbal animal expert ( learnt from the gypsys) says in her book that dogs will bury bones and carcasses to inocculate them with beneficial bacteria, a bit like culturing youghurt, which then benefits their digestion and overall health. I never noticed any talk of botulism or other baddies in her book . I think it is all about challenging our bodies, farms, soils just enough to toughen them up, not enough to harm them. My boys were always sticking dirty fingers and and objects in their mouths when they were young - they were in more robust health than their friends who were always being disinfected by their parents. I also didn’t vaccinate my boys till they were older and I don’t vaccinate my animals except for tetanus when I castrate. Maybe we’ve just been lucky.Was thinking this. And whst about botulism?
- Location
- somerset
we used to think we were healthy, few colds etc, till the kids went to school ! Now back to pretty healthy, but knacked through injury ! The risk we run, with our mania for cleanliness, is resistance to bugs. I absolutely hate products that claim to kill 99.9% of all known germs, it's the 0.1% that become the resistant germ. There used to be a saying, we eat a peck of dirt before we go, probably very true, till 40/50yrs ago, when the cleanliness went manic. The realism, is we see msa in hospitals, going resistant. The last time i managed to jab my foot with a dung fork, not quite right through, i had to seriously argue, to get a tetanus jab, oh, you have had several, your covered for life, oh yes ? The biggest worry is we are rapidly losing anti biotics to resistance. But, no harm in getting natural resistance, from dirt.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I nearly always eat some soil in a day, it does us no harm! Unless that soil has been poisoned in some way..
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Is Increased Production Worth the Cost of the Fertilizer?
I recently had the pleasure of hosting a pasture walk for a group of University students, young people who wanted to chat about plants, animals, grazing, fencing, water…in other words, all the thin…
onpasture.com
some interesting observations in here
- Location
- somerset
tomorrows reading, after a premovement tb test, always a worry now.Is Increased Production Worth the Cost of the Fertilizer?
I recently had the pleasure of hosting a pasture walk for a group of University students, young people who wanted to chat about plants, animals, grazing, fencing, water…in other words, all the thin…
some interesting observations in here
And what about all that lime and fert???? And don’t forget the man stuff that’s really bad
