It's finally time to pull the corn stalks, and boy are those pigs happy!
When we grow corn, it's not just for one or two ears from each stalk. That had always seemed a waste to me... 6 to 8 footy tall, thick stalks for just a couple little ears of corn. Well here at little sprouts we don't do it that way. We see more value in that huge stalk than in those tiny ears. So we grow corn FOR the stalk, and if the ears develop... that's icing on the cake. But either way, a row of corn stalks is magnificent pig food.
The trick is to let the stalks grow and mature until they just start to dry out... then pull the entire stalk and feed. Its like an 8 food fudge sickle! Of course... they quickly learn about those yummy ears and go for them first. They will desperately rummage through each and every stalk looking for ears, consume them asap, and then settle in for a nice meal... its like eating dessert before dinner.
Here are some shots of the hogs enjoying the corn harvest.
When we grow corn, it's not just for one or two ears from each stalk. That had always seemed a waste to me... 6 to 8 footy tall, thick stalks for just a couple little ears of corn. Well here at little sprouts we don't do it that way. We see more value in that huge stalk than in those tiny ears. So we grow corn FOR the stalk, and if the ears develop... that's icing on the cake. But either way, a row of corn stalks is magnificent pig food.
The trick is to let the stalks grow and mature until they just start to dry out... then pull the entire stalk and feed. Its like an 8 food fudge sickle! Of course... they quickly learn about those yummy ears and go for them first. They will desperately rummage through each and every stalk looking for ears, consume them asap, and then settle in for a nice meal... its like eating dessert before dinner.
Here are some shots of the hogs enjoying the corn harvest.
posted from Bloggeroid
My maternal grandfather was a second-generation American, a second-generation butcher, as well, having bootstrapped into some land (raising pigs in the open) and the IGA franchise grocery store in Chillicothe, Missouri, the birthplace of marketing sliced bread. Bare ears of dried corn filled a wagon parked in a field. When my 13 cousins and I were in town, getting the ears of corn out of the wagon and to the pigs was NO PROBLEM! What was also no problem was the authorship of the squeals when an ear landed on a pig's back instead of the ground. It seems it was 'natural' at that age (age six or seven?) to be oblivious to the pain of another sentient being.
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