Perhaps we should put the cow chips to work and capture the methane instead.
David, you've hit on several good issues in this post, one of which is really puzzling to me. I grew up in the farm country of western Mass. On the old yankee farms where I worked as a boy, the cows were fed hay, not corn. Fertilizer, other than manure, wasn't needed. It seemed like a very self-sufficient and sustainable cycle. Why has that changed, and why wouldn't hay be a viable option for feed?
Dave Brooks
· 2 years ago
Land is too expensive in southern NH - and the rest of the state, I imagine - to grow enough hay to feed any kind of cattle herd. (That's why hay is so expensive here - it's not just because horse owners are willing to pay more than farmers.) Corn carries a lot more calories per square foot of land.
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David, you've hit on several good issues in this post, one of which is really puzzling to me. I grew up in the farm country of western Mass. On the old yankee farms where I worked as a boy, the cows were fed hay, not corn. Fertilizer, other than manure, wasn't needed. It seemed like a very self-sufficient and sustainable cycle. Why has that changed, and why wouldn't hay be a viable option for feed?