• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • Andrés Bernal
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden

Would you rather have unlimited compost or unlimited livestock feed?

 
gardener
Posts: 2835
Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)
1375
homeschooling kids trees chicken food preservation building woodworking homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
One to feed your garden and one to feed your animals.

Would you rather have unlimited compost or unlimited livestock feed?
 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 5996
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
2771
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Sign me up for unlimited feed.

Compost and its creation is soothing to me. Like a messy bonsai.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1089
Location: Greybull WY north central WY zone 4 bordering on 3
327
hugelkultur trees solar woodworking composting homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Unlimited feed.  assuming that is delivered.  That would provide for unlimited compost.  Now if I had to haul it home then I suppose the answer would change.
 
Rusticator
Posts: 9202
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4970
7
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm in for feed! At $20 for a50# bag, and $10/bale for hay, vs building compost from the manure and food scraps - no brainer, for me.
 
master gardener
Posts: 4670
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
2411
7
forest garden trees chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts woodworking homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It's funny, as I started thinking about this question, I settled on unlimited compost because with that I could make unlimited feed, which is sort of the opposite of the above couple answers. But it also might be that as a vegetarian, I need a lot more veggies than animals.
 
master steward
Posts: 7622
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2810
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Indeed. Unlimited feed creates unlimited compost.
 
steward
Posts: 17469
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4464
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I agee with other votes for animal feed as it is expensive.

Feed the animal and get free stuff to compost.
 
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15458
Location: SW Missouri
11164
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm on the unlimited compost side. I'd rather grow what I want for feed.
 
master pollinator
Posts: 1171
Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b
132
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Compost.  I don't like taking care of animals and having them around, too much hastle and stress for me.
 
Posts: 145
Location: South Central Virginia
32
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Feed! For many years I've been buying hay and feed to both feed my animals and the soil. I get dual use of the money the feed costs first it feeds the critters then the soil so a better bang for the bucks. Hopefully this year I stop buying feed. Just have to install another 1/4 mile of fence to enclose another 4-5 acres or so. Either way the animals produce manure which then turns to compost and feeds the soil. It is NOT the only form of compost I use though. I also gather rotted wood chip compost from the wood lot down the road.
 
gardener
Posts: 1003
Location: Zone 5
449
ancestral skills forest garden foraging composting toilet fiber arts bike medical herbs seed writing ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Compost of course! I am vegetarian and don’t have animals except for dogs, and they are plenty of work. Compost is what I would like.

I say I don’t have animals. But the gnarled, dying apple trees house plenty of birds, and these birds poop below, fertilizing the garlic mustard (and further causing the decline of the tree. But nature gives!) I just gathered a large, beautiful bunch this morning.
 
pioneer
Posts: 231
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
92
cat forest garden chicken building medical herbs wood heat
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Doesn't unlimited livestock feed eventually become unlimited compost?
 
pollinator
Posts: 207
Location: SE USA, southern Piedmont Uplands, zone 8b
169
home care tiny house cooking fiber arts seed writing composting
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'd like to have unlimited livestock feed.
Wow, what a savings! And if there's surplus (I assume there would be with "unlimited"), there's more chop-and-drop.
 
pollinator
Posts: 246
67
8
hugelkultur books chicken cooking food preservation greening the desert
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Matt McSpadden wrote:One to feed your garden and one to feed your animals.

Would you rather have unlimited compost or unlimited livestock feed?


Unlimited compost, since we need it in truck loads.
Sandy
 
Posts: 314
Location: Myrtle Creek, Oregon
23
5
cooking writing ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Compost, hands down, you can grow anything with good compost! I get a volunteer from a bin I have in one garden, every year, pumpkins, butternut squash, tomatoes, fruit trees, flowers, etc
 
On top of spaghetti all covered in cheese, there was this tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic