pull down to refresh
We have 3 horses, their manure is the main input for the compost. I buy hay, convert it into manure with the horses, then it turns into eggs and compost with the chickens. Integrate rather than segregate, the output of one system is the input for another. With each expenditure of my time, I'm getting multiple yields and stacking multiple forms of capital, simultaneously managing multiple systems. It's a thing of beauty.
It's a thing of beauty.
Truly. Is it hard to grow enough grass for the horses to graze on (hence the hay)?
The opposite actually, the horses are halflinger draft ponies, the are easy keepers, so they are so efficient with the food they eat grass can actually be too sweet for them. If they eat too much fresh grass they can develop a condition called founder which is kinda like horse diabetes. Because of the extra work of intensively managing the horses on pasture and the value of the pasture is much higher to feed to sheep to grow lamb meat, we just buy cheap first cutting hay to feed the horses. I guess I need to make a horse post to better lay out the details with the horses.
That's really interesting.
Is the hay so cheap that it's not worth the effort to try to grow whatever would be healthy for them to graze on or is their metabolism so efficient that it pretty much has to be hay?
Yes, the hay is cheap enough that it's better to spend financial capital on it rather that the natural capital (pasture). If the horses were on pasture it would be much more difficult to collect their manure to use for compost too. Basically by feeding hay we're able to get more value out of it than it costs because it eventually turns into compost and eggs, which then turns into sats, and more food.
What generates most of the input for your compost? I'm guessing it's a lot more than your food waste.
Backyard chickens have been on our list for a long time.