The Daoist 70% rule comes up in pasture-based livestock practice.
Steve
We’ve bred a very high-maintenance animal.
So one of the biggest problems confronting a dairy, to make the changeover, is to go through the time period to let their phenotype change to a more grass-friendly phenotype. That’s why the grass-based dairies are moving towards Dutch Belteds.. Go visit with Yaegerlinners.. over here.. Alan Yaegerlinner over here with the cheese. (Mr Salatin is referring to a dairy farmer displaying his products in the exposition) Okay? They’re one that’s done it very successfully and if you look at their cows they’ve got some.. looks like Ayershires and Guernsey Cross and Dutch Belted and it’s quite a hodge podge and you’ll see they’re continuing to make that transition.
But that’s one of the biggest problems, and then the other thing is getting milk-quality forage. How do you get milk-quality forage? And that, in my opinion almost REQUIRES the addition of multi-species animals.. of poultry. Well, the average dairy farmer doesn’t want to add (infers “poultry” here, but skips to) “I’m a Dairyman,” like a cattle farmer, “I’m a cattleman.” You know, chickens are.. that’s poor man’s stuff. So it doesn’t have the prestige of being a cattleman. And so a lot of these things are, you know, just social, emotional-type stuff. But it certainly can be done and it is being done, and as a general rule, every pound of milk over 12,000 pounds per lactation is an economic drain on your dairy. Because every pound of milk beyond that 12,000 pushes that animal beyond its genetic efficiency.
Remember,the most efficient place that your car runs is not “pedal to the metal.” Any machine that you run, runs most efficiently at about.. 65 to 70% of its horsepower capacity, am I right? Sure, sure. Absolutely. It actually doesn’t run as efficiently if it’s idling.. and it doesn’t run as efficiently wide open. And the cows and the animals and the .. everything is the same way.
That’s one reason why we use non-hybrid, heavy breed layers. (W)e drop our egg production from about 300 eggs a year down to about 240, but that egg does not extract as much energy from the chicken, so she’s got a little reserve left over to pack a nutritional punch into that egg. You start using these (hybrid breeds), they punch out eggs so fast on such a tiny body phenotype that the skeleton cannibalizes itself, it decalcifies itself trying to keep up with the egg production. And so what happens is that you end up burning that bird out faster.
And that’s why the dairies are burning these cows out so fast that … the average lactation is only 1.8 lactations or something – that’s why there’s such a huge market for dairy heifers in this country, is because if the average dairy cow doesn’t even produce two calves, she’s not even replacing herself, because half of them are bulls! Now, you know they might be genetically engineering some of those pretty soon, figure out how to graft udders onto steers or something, I don’t know, but .. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s being contemplated right now in the halls of the powers that be."
--
The rule of no realm is mine . . . great or small.
But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care.
And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task . . . if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.
For I also am a steward. Did you not know?
~ Gandalf
M-L
trees all people whole planet
<alltrees-allpeo...@googlegroups.com> put these thoughts to
the keyboard and sent:
>Joel Salatin is a farmer in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, USA.
Hello Steve,
Thanks for sharing that. I think the terminology is different, but "free
range" would seem to be the same thing, certainly as far as poultry is
concerned here in Oz. Free range eggs are taking off, and more and more
states are starting to ban the battery hen method of egg production as
well as consumers looking for, willing to pay that little bit extra and
buy the free range eggs.
It's interesting what Joel says about cattle. This could apply to
Holstein-Friesian cattle, but not so much to some of the other breeds
like Jersey and Guernsey because they were never really used in that
way, and have other characteristics from the larger Holstein-Friesian
cows. These breeds were certainly bred from parentage that produced the
most milk from their type. But not pushed much harder than that. I
suppose breeding without selection and culling is pointless.
Here in Oz, the dairy farmers are making certain that cattle grow a
very healthy and productive rumen, because cows just don't produce
quantity or quality milk if they don't have that very important
stomach working the best it can. The dairy farmers agist their heifers
on other farms where they are **not** supplementary fed, and consume
only the grasses and plants available. In this way they they develop the
rumen from the rougher forage that would not be present on most dairy
farms, where the grass is lush, soft and of a type that is grown to
produce milk.
We have had dairy goats in the past, and they love the very rough fare
because they rely, much like cattle, on their rumen; not only to digest
food, but in the process to create heat that will warm them during the
colder weather. They have no wool to keep them warm like sheep.
We have used for many years and use poultry still to improve the
gardens and pasture. There is no need for outside or chemical inputs,
because we feed the birds a little depending on the season and they
convert pests and any food we give them also the grass they consume into
fertiliser. It saves us a great deal. The birds also ensure our apples
do not become host to the codlin moth larvae etc.. There should be no
orchard that doesn't have geese and poultry, keeping down the grass and
keeping in check the insects that attack the fruit, whatever variety it
is.
I'm wondering about the car analogy? I was always told an engine is at
it's most fuel efficient when running flat out, and even then is only
85% efficient. Never a hundred percent and that's why it's such
primitive technology? But that might have been wrong.
The problem with all the things, probably of all life, but certainly in
horticulture and agriculture is, people looking to science; not to
understand what is happening so we may know better how to maximise
effort, production, and natures bounty and wonder. But rather to
ensure that science can produce something "better". [laughing] Science
is a great mimic of the natural world. Sees something and then
"improves" it so there are more problems created that people look to
science to solve, thus science justifies its existence. The natural
world needs no crutch.
Be well,
Charlie
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