Selfsufficientish.com

Making another batch of spiced apple butter today. As I was feeding my excited hens on cooked apple scraps from the sieve and some cooked veggie peels I wondered whether anyone grows food specifically for their animals.

I give my dog home cooked lamb mince with lots of cooked carrots and some dog biscuits but the carrots are just the less good ones from the garden.

Anyone grow Mangles for their goats for example - looked really easy to grow.

I grow a lot of swedes for the animals

And hay of coarse

[quote="marshlander"

Anyone grow Mangles for their goats for example - looked really easy to grow.[/quote]



There's lots of stuff you can grow to feed livestock...I'm not sure of the food value of mangles(expect it's quite high)but they need quite good conditions,if your land is exposed you might fare better with fodder beet,you can graze off the tops(sheep,or else cut them by hand and feed)then lift and store the roots in a clamp.
As you'll know ,the ''goats eat anything'' is a bit of a myth,they will nibble at stuff enough to destroy it,but they are quite particular about what they eat. Field beans are easy and a VG protein source to add to their cereal.As above you can grow hay and best of all haylage,but we did experiment with Lucerne,it wasn't a great success,but our place was at nearly 1000ft,I know of other goat keepers that have had great success with it.

Most of the seed for the above stuff should be available in reasonable quantities from a seed merchant that serves both gardener and farmer,eg Tuckers.

Our chickens are in a forest garden area. A lot of the plants that we have put in their are specifically for the chickens to eat. The wild garlic has to be fenced in so that they only eat the leaves that poke through the mesh rather than destroying the whole plant. Mint grows fast enough that they don't completely remove it until it stops growing in the autumn. They eat the berries that are low down on a bush, but also manure the ground and eat parasitic insects so the berries at the top of the bush are healthier. Our old cock used to like eating apple blossom.

I found fodder beet quite do-able on a garden scale, plus it takes up space in the root break which, for me at least, is the one I find it hard to fill

I did have trouble finding un-coated seed

We grew lots of corn last season for the chicken which we never got round to getting. We roughly milled it and now the dog is eating it. There is loads of it though and we are supposed to be getting the chickens this year. We feed the dog on bones, cheep off cuts and old meat from the butcher which we boil up, adding a handful of the corn, old bread and all the left overs from our plates.

There is a lot of foliage around the yard for the bunnies to eat, some of which was planted specifically for them. Ti leaves, banana leaves (we eat the bananas), coconuts, (bunnies adore coconut although we eat them, too), citrus leaves as well as extra citrus, carrot tops, assorted grasses, etc. I've started several mulberry trees for them since supposedly up to 40% of their feed intake can be from mulberries. We fortunately have a year round growing season, so that cuts way down on store bought feed. Which is terribly expensive since most of it has to be shipped in.

A neighbor with alpaca has started sprouting barley for them to eat. Sprouting it increases the volume by rather a lot and her feed costs have gone way down. You could probably do that with any grain.

Niele da Kine wrote: A neighbor with alpaca has started sprouting barley for them to eat. Sprouting it increases the volume by rather a lot and her feed costs have gone way down. You could probably do that with any grain.

I might try this for the rabbits

We have started some Siberian pea trees for the hens to help themselves to from next year hopefully. I'm also leaving one field to grow on as foggage for my small sheep flock.

we sprout wheat for our animals. At 6 days old, it resembles wheat grass, and it is called fodder. It is great for them, and significantly reduces the feed bill over feeding concentrates.

We also integrate our species a lot to maximize feed/waste cycles. Under the rabbit, we have earthworms, and those go to the poultry. The rabbit/poultry butcher waste goes to pigs. Poultry clean up spilled feed everywhere around our place. Weeds from the garden go to the rabbits.

tizzy wrote:We have started some Siberian pea trees for the hens to help themselves to from next year hopefully. I'm also leaving one field to grow on as foggage for my small sheep flock.

Love to trade some seeds

PM me