I am not a hay expert, but many animals appear to be. Today I placed about 10 bales of straw bedding around the sows to dry things up a bit. They immediately started flipping out, tossing it around, and voraciously devouring it. For a while they all had green\yellow Santa Claus beards as they carried around flakes of the stuff. They ate themselves into a food coma and passed out in their own plate (see picture). It was hilarious. What is strange is this was straw bedding. I have purchased "quality" alfalfa for four times as much, and they did not turn into hammerhead land sharks. Goes to show that there is a science to grass, and animals can tell (whether they know it or not), if it was grown in a manner that is good for them. Next time I buy hay, I may take one of the pigs with me just to be sure I get what I am intending to.
Hi Joel,
ReplyDeleteI'm a friend of Julie Kintzi's and a nutritionist. I'm very into farm to plate so and am very interested in a small farm someday. I really enjoy reading you blog - such a great writer too! Thank you!
Julie, Today I discovered for the first time "comments" on the blog :) sorry I did not catch them untill today. You being a nutritionalist, I would love to chat someday about health and your farm ambition. I have been giving the pigs Icelandic kelp and diatomateous earth as a suppliment. "Secretly" I have been taking suppliment from the same bag (I stopped after Gerbil stuck her face in it)and have been feeling great, I attribute my hip pain being gone to the DE, but am not sure if the extra energy in from the kelp or DE. Have you heard of DE as a human suppliment?
ReplyDelete