Feed prices

[Lazy Gardener]

THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE. i WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT. i AGREE. THIS IS A FINE DAY TO BE ALIVE. FOR, I AM A BELOVED DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE. HE LOVES ME WITH A RECKLESS, NEVER ENDING, EVERLASTING LOVE. AND HE WILL NOT ALLOW ANYTHING TO TOUCH ME THAT IS NOT FIRST FILTERED THROUGH HIS FINGERS.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

DH's mother loves to feed the birds. One year, she noted that there were lots of birds hopping around on neighbor's lawn, and singing in their trees, while her yard was barren of bird activity. It took her a long time to put 2 and 2 together... with a lot of prompting from me. She had hired a "lawn service" to come and spray her lawn with combination of herbicide and insecticides. The birds wouldn't be caught dead on her property. (pun intended) She stopped the lawn service, and the birds came back.

 

[farmerjan]

As for the personal use of pesticides and herbicides, it is true that many think that a little more will do a little better job... we are a society of more is better in many ways. It is true that the run off of suburban areas is much more toxic than that from many farms because of both the over use and the concentration of houses/lawns and concrete/asphalt roads.
Farmers have to take a class and get certified , then get recertified regularly in order to use pesticides and herbicides on crops. My son takes the recertification every year and we use very few chemicals. They are schooled on the damages, the problems with drift and run off, the dangers associated. Most are very conscientious. They should require the same for homeowners but they don't . It also gets very expensive to use the chemicals if you are doing very much acreage, so farmers are not going to overuse them.

I guess that using something like pyrethrin and permethrim is a chemical, so I have used pyrethrin on occasion in the garden...... I also use it as a spray on the dairy cattle in the barn before milking in order to give them a little relief and me a chance at a "non-kicking at the flies" milking. But I also have found that using DE as a feed through cuts down on the flies dramatically so don't need much for the cows, and I use it as a dust on the chickens and it seems to take care of any lice .... as well as using it as a feed additive and they don't seem to have any problems with worms anymore as well as seldom seeing lice. I will hand pick potato bugs and squash the eggs of the different pests that lay eggs on the underside of plant leaves. Just don't have alot of problems and I don't grow eggplant because the flea bettles come from the thin air and destroy the plants. Japanese beatles have been a scourge, but using m,ilky spore disease has helped. Don't know what the new garden will be like this year.

 

[CLSranch]

I have been feeding DE in feed for years. We get our feed custom made.... we run a cow calf operation, and so get our feed by the ton delivered bulk. The best way to incorporate DE in a small operation is to add to the loose mineral/salt mix... or in a sweet feed. Our custom mix has about 100-150 lbs per TON.... very miniscule in the scheme of things.
Use like a TSP mixed in a 2 qt scoop of feed once or twice a week... or a pinch daily....
The same with our chicken feed...I have some purebred show birds, had a free range laying flock and also, I raise broilers (CCX) that I get from a couple commercial poultry houses when they come and get the birds.... I get the left over "culls" that are usually the small ones..... sometimes get 10, sometimes get 100 or more; about every 8 weeks or so if they leave any behind. Don't do them in the coldest weather because they come out of a climate temp controlled house and cannot take the cold shock.... So I also get a 16% layer feed delivered bulk.... 2 tons at a time..... and feed it to the layers and the ccx. I have the DE added to the feed when it is being made... I feed pellets so they don't waste it like a finer ground mash feed.
The DE actually is "rough enough" in the gut tract that it will puncture the soft bodies of worms/larvae and they will die and be expelled. It also does the same in the manure... as the larvae hatch from the eggs.... It works the same as a dust... and I add it to say ahses that I put in the coops for a dust box... especially in the winter if the birds cannot get out to dust. And I have used it direct on them as a dusting powder instead of a commercial brand if they have lice.
DE is VERY IRRITATING to any soft moist tissue... don't breathe it as it will iritate your nose and throat and eyes if you get in a "cloud" of it. But it does the job without "chemicals" if used properly. Some people feel that it is not good to use. The vet did some fecal samples on some cows that were wormy, fed DE and then did some again. That is the ONLY thing we changed.... fecals came back nearly 100% clean in a month and the cows looked 200% better just by getting them "wormed". Sold me on it. I did it after another small "hobby " farmer swore by it. We were using the same vet, and he mentioned it, so I tried it. Now I wouldn't do without it.

Thanks for the info farmerjan

 

[farmerjan]

Feed will continue to go up since "all of a sudden" we do not have the surplus stockpiles they said we had. Believe me, I see this all the time between what we feed and all the dairies I am around. Soybeans, which make a a good portion of the protein additive, in rations, were $10 a bushel last fall. One of my farmers sold his on storage back about 6-8 weeks ago for $12. They are over $14 now and the general consensus is they could hit as high as $18 to $20 by summer before they know how many acres are planted and how the weather is going. Soybeans are often planted as a second crop.... called double cropping.... after another crop has been taken off the field, like early barley or wheat. Corn is over $4 a bushel...
I filled my 2 1/2 ton bin with layer pellets, and DS got 4 ton of the 17% pellet we top dress our corn silage with to feed the feeder steers and heifers. He will go through it fairly steady since we have over 40 on feed now and another 25 to move in there; until they get sold in Mar-April???? Maybe late this month.... We are watching the prices and if feed goes up too much, price per pound goes down on the feeders and we can lose too much with the feed that is in them. Don't know when I am going to get more "left behinds" so wanted to have feed ready for them. I feed it to my few purebreds, and the meat birds do just fine on it.
If fuel gets too high, there will be less double crops planted as the farmers won't be able to afford to harvest the crops.... and all that fuel goes into the grain bin dryers too so if it is a wet year, it will cost a bundle to get the grain dried down to a storable level.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Not buying into the "shortage" lie. Not when my neighbors told me, 2020 was the best year they can remember for corn. Someone or some group of someone's is not telling the truth and are liars.

Say it ain't so!!!! I can't imagine that any one would possibly be stating falsehoods for self benefit.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Agreed with you, Creal. We are gonna see prices go through the roof on both fuel and food. mr. biden will use escalated fuel prices as well as his EO's to force folks into electric vehicles. Then... he'll have us right where he wants us... with even less competition to help drive prices down.

 

[Hinotori]

I think your thoughts are wishful thinking - ask yourself one simple question. Can you afford a new electric car? I know I can't. Maybe your Mrs Warbucks but I sure ain't Mr. Warbucks.

There are quite a lot of hybrid vehicles around here. Even some of hubby's co-workers have hybrids.

Only people living in the greater Seattle area or Tacoma proper that don't go anywhere really have all electric cars. To much of distance here is measured by time it takes to get there doing 70mph+. Electric charging stations are showing up now around Puyallup but there is nothing out in the more remote places.

Hybrids are popular for that reason. We've looked at a few for hubby's new vehicle. Make his commute a bit cheaper. We do expect our vehicles to last at least a decade, though.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Right on, Creal. Freedom of choice. Multiple options for the business owners to produce alternate fuel. I live RURAL. Can't get any where without driving about 20 miles one way. And it's interstate driving. I need a truck for a lot of my needs. AND, I NEED 4WD. I couldn't possibly haul the amount of materials I need on a regular basis with an electric car. Total folly. Ireland, from what I read has prohibited coal heat, demanding that everyone convert to electric. Now, so many of the lower class citizens can't afford to heat their homes, and actually freeze during the winter. This is where we are heading. One of mr. biden's recent EO's demands that all suburban communities function under a single national set of zoning mandates. THAT is going to prove to be a disaster. The US is so diverse that it is folly to expect us here in Maine to function under same set of rules that work in southern climates, or more populous areas. emperor biden is killing us with his pen.

 

[HornyToadAcres]

Comment from the Permian Basin Oilfield...

When the barrel price of oil gets up to $50 and over, you will start to see some more production. However, if, as in one of those EO's that were supposedly not the "right way to govern," no more lease permits are granted, the available permits will eventually run out. We had a moment of energy independence...sigh.

The world market was glutted with oil. Not sure of the current situation on that as I have had to stop with most of my media consumption in order to retain a little bit of my sanity. Anyway, that also affects exactly what goes on re oil production in the US as well as prices at the pump. If we continue as started last month, I'm guessing gas/diesel will hit the $4 range by summer. And fuel prices affect the price of pretty much everything.

BTW, lots of wind turbines here and I know folks in that industry. Did you know that a wind turbine does not pay for itself over the course of its functional life? I am all for developing alternative and renewable sources of fuel but we have got to be smarter about it than we have been so far. For one thing, there is an incredible amount of energy contained in the materials still going into landfills. We have the technology, it is generally referred to as gasification, to turn at least 90% of those materials into energy but we are simply not doing it.

Hubby has been working on a gasifier for our homestead. It is still out in the future but I can't wait for him to get it done.