Is an acre of comfrey or an acre of grass (conventional hay mix) worth more?

I was walking on top of a comfrey plant (if established well enough, and dense enough it will support a human) that I had grow in the middle of established grass, and was wondering what's worth more to animals for feed if it's left to grow until animals came through. Any ideas, because I'm looking at conversion? I like numbers.

Are you referring to common comfrey, the wild growing plant, or Russian comfrey, the sterile 'Bocking' varieties?

I am no idea about the feed values,  but my comfrey dies back to the ground over the winter.
I woud be concerned that the fields would be bare and vulnerable during the winter.

Timothy Norton wrote:Are you referring to common comfrey, the wild growing plant, or Russian comfrey, the sterile 'Bocking' varieties?

community garden variety that has white flowers

It's growing well in a peat bog, so the roots are probably very shallow

I feel if looking at animal feed prices I would say that an acre of hay is more valuable.

If looking from a medical standpoint then maybe an acre of comfrey is more valuable.

So this all depends on the marketplace.

Anne Miller wrote:I feel if looking at animal feed prices I would say that an acre of hay is more valuable.

Comfrey - animal feed

I understand that comfrey is animal feed.

If you baled comfrey how much could you get for a bale of comfrey vs a bale of hay?

I have transplanted several of the "Bocking 14" comfrey plants out into my pastures. The cows have a tendency to graze it all the way back to a nub when they find a clump out there. Which means they really like it.

I have a great many copies in pots I made that I totally intended to transplant out there this past Winter but didn't.

Anyways, I think that pastures are the most resilient when you have a great mixture of species that will be at max performance during the cold months, cool months, and hot months. As well as a mixture of species within each of those periods. As stated in a previous post... it goes dormant and disappears out there during the Winter.

I aim to have more comfrey out there at some point. However, since I have dialed in the rotational grazing and pasture management, the grasses are going gangbusters out there here in year two. I am no longer sure that the comfrey would survive long enough to establish out there without being shaded out. I may have to work the comfrey into the micro-climates along the forest edge or something.

Here is a pic of the girls (Dexter cattle) I took this evening after I moved them into the last section before starting them over again in the rotation after a week or so of this section. Some parts of the pasture… they disappear. 😂