Monday, 27 November 2023

A Big Pile Of Fodder Beet.


 2.9 tons of fodder beet to be precise.   It was weighed on a weigh bridge.

My job last Sunday was hand balling them off a very large trailer into the yard or haggard if one uses old farming terms.

This is a food supplement for the pigs 🐖  along with their buckets of ration,

The big pigs devour the fodder beet and need none of it chopped or sliced.  I feed the small pigs small  fodder beets and the  bigger ones I chop with a spade.

Smallholding farming can be expensive but it's good to give your livestock a varied diet.  Especially when we will be eating some of them.  

Anyone buy or grow fodder beet to feed to their pigs or other livestock?  


12 comments:

  1. I wonder if I could make soup from them for my indoor livestock?

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are not Wurzels are they JayCee? Fodder beet was ate by humans in times of food scarcity and they even made beer from them. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought we called them mangels - is that the same? We grew some once for the goats - they enjoyed them

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mangel Wurzels Sue. That's how the band got their name. My grandfather used to grow them for the cart horse and cattle. I have grown a field of fodder beet and dug them by hand and chopped them with my spade. It keeps the animals occupied.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mangels! Goodness i remember hand hoeing mangels when I was a kid. Hated the job. Our farm couldn't grow them - soil too light, but my Uncle's place was on heavy clay and he grew loads of the things to which we all had to pitch in for thinning and hoeing. I'm sure the pigs do like them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The pigs love the beet TM. They give a bit of variety to their diet instead of just eating their meal. They grow well on land that's had a good application of fym.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 3 tons of beets was a lot of beets to move. You work hard on your wee holding

    ReplyDelete
  8. It was loaded onto a trailer and we unloaded it by hand. I just the beet into a wheelbarrow and feed it to the very happy 🐖 🐷 Linda.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's a LOT of fodder, how long will it last?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I would think 3 or 4 weeks River. We got our first frost last night.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The beet goes on, the beet goes on
    Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
    La de da de de, la de da de da - Sonny and Cher


    ReplyDelete
  12. I have never heard of that one YP. " I got you beet" was changed to babe at the last moment.

    ReplyDelete

Still As A Mill Pond.

 I went for a five mile saunter the other day or even last week.  It was a lovely calm day and a enjoyable Autumn walk.  What a difference a...