Thanks Ray (it is Ray right). We have been in that cycle of feeding cows grain and its not necessary. Pigs can eat grain without the health problems associated with cows eating grain, but its expensive. Our pigs are still getting a significant portion of their diet in grain, but I’m working to reduce that percentage. We had such a large influx of pigs (boar jumped through 5 different 10,000 volt electric fences to breed more gilts than he was supposed to) and we ended up with 150 pigs rather than 30. Had it not been for that, we would have been able to feed those piglets on more forage. It just requires more space and planned grazing pens. I think it will be a couple years before I get the system nailed down for me. It’s more difficult in Mississippi than say Michigan because of the months of intense summer heat and humidity make it miserable for the pigs unless they have deep shade. Your summer growing conditions should be pretty good to grow lots of brassicas, clovers, and some of the more nutritious grasses that dont do well here. I would think you still need grain, but you could reduce those grain inputs significantly.

Thanks for watching

That’s perfect feed for the pigs too. How many do you have? 2-4 pigs? I think that’s something that a lot of people do not consider very well. It’s easy to supplement feed for a very small group of pigs from a home garden, (2-3 pigs). It’s much more difficult to do on a larger scale. I have not grown corn for grain without fertilizer (I have grown grazing corn not sweet corn for human consumption), but most of our other crops do well with no inputs once we get the soil in better shape and we can get really high production out of them. Im glad that you are doing this. Those crops you mention all make good to great feed for pigs and are very nutritious.

@@DowdleFamilyFarms yes just a homestead. 4 goats, 3 pigs and one last cornish cross hen to prove that they arent genetically dispositioned for early mortality but rather die from the feed bucket, essentially by diabetes. She will be 3 yrs old this sept. Everything i do is an experiment designed to figure out how to make the land support the animals, and the animals do the work without money, machinery or fuel. Im figuriing out how many square feet, not acres, per head. The goats clear, the pigs till and plant. I just manage the laborers. The pigs live in an enclosure full of tree service wood chips, so when they arent out tilling where i want theyre at home making high carbon soil. No stink, no mud, no manure, very few flies. No meds. Its amazing how many loads of free logs and chips you can get delivered if youll take it all. I just wish i could get grass dropped off too. Im scaling up at the pace of reproduction. Extreme density cover crops without any fertilizing is sort of unchartered territory. Theres not a lot of people i can ask for advice. Im in very thin rocky appalachian mountain clay that is really only suited for grass so its a beef region. Everyone is 100% conventional and losing their butts on feed and fertilizer. Love your channel.

Really cool. It works really well. I find that larger scale is more difficult to do. It just means that I need different techniques. Keep up the great work. Thanks for the positive feedback.

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I agree. With astronomical land, feed, fuel, equipment and labor costs i think the old ways are gonna fade away one retirement or bankruptcy auction at a time and not be replaced because the revenue just cant cover the costs of a conventional startup. We lost 2 houses and started over with nothing. Very risk averse these days. Im doing this on 1 acre now. When i get it all dialed in i will expand. We have gained access to nearly 30 acres between what ive leased and what ive logged for neighbors. If i had the cash to fence it all and buy herds i would but you can wish in one hand and ...

I used to live in OCilla, ga just north east of Tifton. I’m not sure about horses. I don’t recall any information on extension websites with dwarf Essex rape for horses. I’m not familiar with horse nutrition either. Sorry that I can’t help any more.

I’m in north Mississippi. White clover should grow there but check with your state extension websites.

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Will chickens eat the rape plant? (I know they love clover)

@@TheRainHarvester We would have chickens and turkeys eat it some, but they love th insects on the rape more.

@@DowdleFamilyFarms well that is a good alternative. Bugs will have more protein than the plant i think. What type of bugs infest the rape over there? I've been developing my limestone rocky land with great success using leaves. But now i have so much organic mulch that transplants are necessary because seeds get lost in the mulch. I put a few videos showing it recently. Could you take a quick look and suggest what i could do for chickens? My goal is to free range them to find as much food as possible from the land.

@@TheRainHarvester You have some really deep mulch. The mulch will help hold water, but it will be slow to break down, mostly through mycelium rather than bacteria unless it gets some nitrogen. You could plant legumes in the thicker mulch if you want to help decay the mulch some. If the mulch stays moist it will attract worms which chickens will consume of course. It’s hard to get chickens to lay eggs of produce meat by just free ranging them unless you lave just a few chickens or lots and lots of area that they can forage in. If they have a larger area to forage though, you run the risk of predators, which is what happened with us. Anyway, I’m not real sure what else you can do. If you have lots of open area you aren’t using, you could grow something like buckwheat, which will produce grain in 60 days or so with right conditions. That will help with your chickens nutrition, but its hard to do. Sorry I can’t help more. I just dont have the experience in Poultry nutrition.