The little eBay unit - a new one, BTW, was $30.99. I actually lost the bid but got a "second chance" from the seller, "National Industrial Supply". They have many instruments on eBay and gave perfect service. We are ALL going to be looking at economizing our operations when the full impact of biodiesel production kicks in. The millions of acres that will be required to provide corn for all the existing plants and those on the drawing board, are staggering. You won't be able to buy livestock corn for gold bricks. Anybody who wants to stay in the livestock business might want to get on board the grass farming wagon. The farm with high quality pasture land may be the food producer of the future. We all need to learn how to create the high energy pastures that can produce meat and milk on grass alone.
Creating those high energy pastures is a long, slow haul when one is starting with poor soil, like we are. One of the interesting facts in the article was foliar feeding of the grass plants. The leaves have quite an astounding capacity to assimilate nutrients sprayed onto them, more so than roots I think. The Brix reading is not just related to sugar, it also includes minerals. You'd have to test the forage to see what is deficient, but then you can spray those minerals on and the plant will have quite a different Brix reading within 5 days or so. I am going to try spraying the pastures with kelp extract this year. This thing is FUN! I tested some fescue that's growing out by the compost pile and it had a Brix reading of about 5. A dandelion leaf read about 2!!! Some grape juice we pressed this summer was off the chart - over 32 - with a premium rating of around 20 something. I had to dilute it 50/50 with water to get that! LOL! Barb ----- Original Message ----- From: "helen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info> Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 6:35 PM Subject: Re: [blackbelly] Brix and Grass Quality > Barb Lee; > How much did the Brix refractometer cost? If you don't mind my asking. > WOW! > This is something we need here in KY. > We are already getting new lambs ..... 12 so far. This is not what we > wanted, but, the guy we sold our rams to, kept putting us off and > putting us > off, until ... oops,... too late, now the ewes are all bred again. We > don't > have space to separate the rams for a long time, just a few days and > that's > it. Now we have 3 to butcher for our own freezer and no more rams to > worry > about for at least 2 months. [I hope]. But, back to the Brix. The > ground > here is so poor, that we have to supplement some ... but not much, > every > day, so this would be a good thing to have to test our grasses. And > this > year hay is impossible to find. SO! Next year ... grass testing with a > Brix > and new grass in pastures seems to be in order. Don't you think? > Helen > >>Barb Lee wrote; >> Read an interesting article in the latest Stockman Grassfarmer about >> using a Brix refractometer to determine whether your pasture grass >> has >> enough carbohydrates in it to fatten your animals without grain. > > _______________________________________________ > This message is from the blackbelly mailing list > Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info > > _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
