What crops can you grow to feed animals and when are they harvestable?
Question by Jo L: What crops can you grow to feed animals and when are they harvestable?
I am mainly concerned with farm animals like pigs, cows, sheep, chickens etc. When would the crops need to be planted, when would they be harvested, and what crops would they be. Are oats good for this?
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2 Responses to What crops can you grow to feed animals and when are they harvestable?
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Among the crops I know to be used for animal feed are:
Oats
Wheat
Hay grasses
Alfalfa
Sugar Beets
Beets
Corn
Sorghum
Sugar Cane
Turnips
Some of these, such as hay grasses and alfalfa, are cut many times during their growing season and used during the winter months. Others are left to dry and harvested for storage, such as wheat, oats and corn. Some are used fresh as food for both humans and animals; corn, beets, turnips. Some are used as human food in one form and the leftovers used as food for animals: Sorghum, sugar cane and sugar beets. I’m sure there are many others as well as those I have listed. These are almost all planted in the spring and harvested in the summer and fall. Some may be planted in the fall and harvested during the winter or the following spring.
Good luck and enjoy!
shooter1
October 8, 2013 at 4:24 am
Oats is commonly used as grain for livestock, and I believe it is also good for silage. Rye and Triticale is not as good for silage because the awns (those pointy things that come off of the seeds of these cereal grains) are too rough and coarse and tend to stick in the animals’ mouths. Wheat isn’t used as much for livestock feed, as it is primarily used for human food. However, the left overs from harvesting wheat can be used for straw to bed animals. Winter wheat is a wheat variety that can be used for grazing livestock during the summer months the pastures are going into dormancy, as well as for swath grazing cows. Barley, corn, sorghum, and millet are cereal grasses that are commonly used for silage and grain.
Forbs and root crops used for livestock feed include peas, beans, turnips, beets, etc. Most of these are ground up and stored as silage.
Silage is a feed method where crops are chopped up and stored in a large pile or tall silo and allowed to ferment. Crops used for silaging are seeded in the spring and harvested in mid to late summer when they have reached a particular stage.
Crops that are harvested for seed grain are seeded in the spring, allowed to fully mature (seeds are hard) and harvested in the fall.
Crops that are used to winter graze livestock are seeded later, preferably early summer, and harvested in early to mid fall.
Hay fields are kinda like permanent fields where there is no need for tillage and the beginning and end of every cropping year. Hay can contain any sort of grasses that are best for livestock, particularly for sheep, goats, cattle and horses. Sheep, goats and cattle have no preference to what kind of hay they get, but horse owners are more picky. Sheep, goats and cattle can have hay that is legume-grass mixed, legume-only or grass-only. Horses need to have grass-only hay (of good quality) because the high nutrient content found in legumes will cause the horses to colic and/or founder. Legumes include forbs like alfalfa, clover, sanfoin, cicer milkvetch, or birds-foot trefoil. Grasses vary with the location and topography of the farm/ranch. Commonly used grasses for hay include Orchard grass, Timothy, Meadow Brome, etc.
Hay is swathed when the grasses have began to “flower” or the legumes are in 10 to 20% bloom. The swaths are allowed to dry for two or three days (hopefully it doesn’t rain in between then) before they are raked together and baled. Depending on the location, you can take hay off the hay field two or three times a year: further south, you may be able to take off hay three to four times a year. Hay season takes place from mid summer through to early fall.
WildRoseBeef
October 8, 2013 at 5:16 am