Fresh From The Farm: Transferring Nutrients

By Annette Codding

Transferring Nutrients

   It occurred to me today that a large part of gardening, growing food, and raising animals is nothing more than transferring nutrients from things we cannot eat into delicious food. My carnivorous husband would agree. He chooses to run his salad through a steer or deer before he eats it.
   I was in the garden chipping Mexican sunflower and letting it spread out onto a patch of soil t
hat I had just uncovered. It has spent the last several weeks covered by a single sheet of heavy clear plastic, with sheets of metal holding down the edges. It’s a little early in the year for soil solarization, but it seemed to do the trick.
   For the last couple of years, I have been battling a weed that I just learned is named “Mile a Minute.” Makes perfect sense, as it spreads quickly and easily. Pull it up and another one will appear in a week. Hopefully baking the ground killed it off.
   Now that the soil is newly uncovered it is time to plant something. Bare soil always wants to be covered. If I don’t put something down, then nature will. And it will most likely be a weed. One of my favorite authors and speakers, Gabe Brown, refers to this as “armor on the soil.”
   Mulch is my preferred method of protecting the soil from the elements. Mulch the ground then plant through the mulch with whatever you want to grow. Today’s mulch choice was Mexican sunflower. It’s an impressively versatile plant. It can be used as a ground cover, fertilizer. or animal feed.
   Mexican sunflower and Napier grass are two things that I am growing against the advice of some educated and respected gardening friends. They can both get out of hand and become invasive if left unmanaged. The Napier grass grows like crazy and once the canes get tall, they will lay over and if they touch the ground, you will end up with another plant. If you leave a branch of the Mexican sunflower lay on the ground for more than a few days, it will also start to root.
   They both must be managed properly to keep them from creating more work or problems on down the road. Both are great to feed to cows and goats. It was when I had just thrown a bunch over the fence to the cows that it occurred to me that I am growing something that will do nothing but cause problems if left unused. But when fed to my animals it is creating energy and then manure that will feed my pastures.
   I think about the cows on the pasture. There’s not really enough forage there for them if they are just allowed to graze however they want. The rotating helps to increase the amount that’s available. But keeping them confined to one small spot also maximizes the manure that is dropped in the few days that they are there. Then if I take extra forage to them, they will ingest it and even more manure is left behind.
   How else could I turn all of that biomass into something useable for my pastures? The goats happened to see the open gate while I was out throwing Napier grass to the cows. It’s like they had a map in their head of how to go through not one, but two gates, then to the back corner of the garden to the mulberry tree. They bee-lined it!
   This is another example of the nutrient transfer that they were performing for me. Mulberry leaves are excellent forage for goats. In fact, there are people that plant certain varieties just for their forage value. I would normally run the goats off and not let them strip the leaves, but there are truly more mulberries than I can possibly eat, so I am willing to sacrifice some of the lower limbs.
   The goats will eat their fill, go back to the barn, then lay around, and ruminate. Later all of those lost leaves will turn into wonderful goat manure that will eventually make its way to my compost pile. After a few weeks in the compost, it will then get spread on garden beds or on the pasture.
   It's not as much of a closed-loop system around here as I would like. I am still buying feed and peanut hay for the goats. And I suspect that I will always supplement the cows with mineral and give them a little feed when I want. There's a lot to be said for a herd of cattle, even if it's tiny, that can be moved with a bucket.
   But the amount of “trash” going out is minute. The more I grow, the more compost material I generate. And it all gets composted. This last weekend we processed the last of the meat birds and buckets of feathers and offal got sent to the compost pile. Those chickens added fertility to my pasture while they lived and they will again when their guts go back out there as rich black soil.
   The work of growing all of the fertilizer I need here is exhausting sometimes. And I spend a fair amount of time doing tasks, like watering in cow patties, that others would shake their heads at. But it always amazes me at how nature is designed to work together. Stepping in and helping it along is such a gift and makes me smile. Until next time, get outside and grow something good.