OK this is slightly off beam, but a lot of people are very keen of feeding distillers grains to cattle. For some ethanol plants it is the most profitable part of the business.
Animal husbandry is not an area that I know much, if anything about. At home we struggle to keep goldfish alive above three months. (Each one a tragedy.)
But I came across a good, if long piece of writing to the next Farmer In Chief in the New York Times Magazine the other day. I've been wondering what to do with it, and I guess it was Ensus' new website that prompted me to look at the effects of feeding protein and phosphorus-rich food to heifers. I am not trying to take a pop at Ensus, they're just the most recent example of this thinking that I've come across.
It turns out that there is no advantage or disadvantage to feeding distillers grains to dairy heifers. According this on eXtension
For me one of there is a lot of resonance in Michael Pollan's article, especially the part about flying over a brown land, which much of the US is for much of the time (based on series of flights at different seasons to random times across the US in the past 10 years). I am also impressed with his quote:
I don't think of my self as particularly a champion of the organic food movement. Cheap food has enabled many in the west to avoid malnutrition, partly through fertiliser use. Organic food is often the preserve of the wealthy, beacuse it has not been possible to produce it on the scale of industrial food.
Maybe we need a middle way between these extremes with smaller farms closer to centres of population and inorganic fertiliser application used to supplement rather than replace fertilisation using animal waste. At least part of this Pollan recommends.
Would benefit farmers to grow a range of crops across their farms rather than being reliant on monocultures of individual crops, if only to spread the risk.
Enough of this, I'm heading right back onto the beam.
Animal husbandry is not an area that I know much, if anything about. At home we struggle to keep goldfish alive above three months. (Each one a tragedy.)
But I came across a good, if long piece of writing to the next Farmer In Chief in the New York Times Magazine the other day. I've been wondering what to do with it, and I guess it was Ensus' new website that prompted me to look at the effects of feeding protein and phosphorus-rich food to heifers. I am not trying to take a pop at Ensus, they're just the most recent example of this thinking that I've come across.
It turns out that there is no advantage or disadvantage to feeding distillers grains to dairy heifers. According this on eXtension
The primary advantage in feeding distillers grains to dairy heifers is cost. There are no known biological or nutritional advantages or disadvantages associated with feeding distillers grains to dairy heifers. Research trials in which distillers grains were fed to heifers observed normal growth rates, normal reproduction, and normal subsequent milk production.
For me one of there is a lot of resonance in Michael Pollan's article, especially the part about flying over a brown land, which much of the US is for much of the time (based on series of flights at different seasons to random times across the US in the past 10 years). I am also impressed with his quote:
As Wendell Berry has tartly observed, to take animals off farms and put them on feedlots is to take an elegant solution -- animals replenishing the fertility that crops deplete -- and neatly divide it into two problems: a fertility problem on the farm and a pollution problem on the feedlot. The former problem is remedied with fossil-fuel fertilizer; the latter is remedied not at all.
I don't think of my self as particularly a champion of the organic food movement. Cheap food has enabled many in the west to avoid malnutrition, partly through fertiliser use. Organic food is often the preserve of the wealthy, beacuse it has not been possible to produce it on the scale of industrial food.
Maybe we need a middle way between these extremes with smaller farms closer to centres of population and inorganic fertiliser application used to supplement rather than replace fertilisation using animal waste. At least part of this Pollan recommends.
Would benefit farmers to grow a range of crops across their farms rather than being reliant on monocultures of individual crops, if only to spread the risk.
Enough of this, I'm heading right back onto the beam.
Comments (6)
Feedlot animal wastes are a source of biomass for biofuels. Some dairy farms are doing this already.
Posted by David B. Benson | October 22, 2008 11:54 PM
Posted on October 22, 2008 23:54
Hi David,
They are a source of biofuels, and there are arguments about getting all the waste together in one place to ensure that it is easy to capture. But isn't there a counter argument that the environmental cost of greenhouse gas escaping from manure is a small price to pay for the fertilising effects of that manure. That is if you compare the environmental costs of producing fertiliser from natural gas, transporting it spreading it, it washing off into water courses etc. There's run-off from animal-based manure too, but if the food the animals eat is what they evolved to eat not distillers grains which are high in nitrogen (protein) that should be minimal. What you put into a cow you're likely to get out the other end.
Posted by Simon Robinson
|
October 23, 2008 9:31 AM
Posted on October 23, 2008 09:31
Simon --- I don't know how it all plays out. However, nitrogen fertilizer can also be produced from biomathne, not just natural gas.
But of course the Pope has the best colution: don't eat (red) meat.
Posted by David B. Benson | October 24, 2008 12:21 AM
Posted on October 24, 2008 00:21
Could this be the answer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/yourstories/2006/march/story_one.shtml
Posted by Simon Robinson
|
October 24, 2008 9:47 AM
Posted on October 24, 2008 09:47
Alas, the oceans are over 90% fished out.
Posted by David B. Benson | October 24, 2008 11:19 PM
Posted on October 24, 2008 23:19
the price of cod is astronomical, so bulk up with mushy peas
Posted by Simon Robinson
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October 27, 2008 10:02 AM
Posted on October 27, 2008 10:02