Okie knows farming

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

ALthough, you have to watch ant SUdan grass vecause if the frost hits iot, the Nitrogen/C converts to CYANIDE and you can kill the cattle.

Good informative post, farmer, and I can confirm that we had to be careful with our sudan as well. If the cattle got out and into a field too long to eat that stuff at the wrong time, without us knowing, it was lethal. Similar to the dangers of what we called "Johnson Grass," which was a kind of a tall stalk type of plant that also looked somewhat like sudan when coming up and growing. It was a prolific plant that grew in lots of places, mainly in the ditches along roads or along fence lines. If cattle got out and into it without us knowing quick enough, the cow or cows could eat enough to start bloating and die pretty quickly. Of course, nobody would intentionally plant Johnson Grass for any useful purpose. It just sort of grew wild like a weed, and was hard to eradicate completely.

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@okie,

I havn't checked it in awhile, but our county budget for dealing with Johnson grass was about a quarter million yearly....nasty stuff.

1 Reply

@2PacksAday,

Is there no safe time that it can be consumed by any herbivore, 2PaD? Could it be cut for ethanol, used for bedding?

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@JTT,

Yes, it's supposed to make fine hay....you just have to take care to let it age a bit....stressing the plant...either by frost or drought followed by a heavy rain will cause it to build up acid.

Our main reason for spraying for it county wise, is it will take over everything, even the highways if left alone....it's a very large grass/weed.

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@okie,

okie wrote:

Of course, nobody would intentionally plant Johnson Grass for any useful purpose. It just sort of grew wild like a weed, and was hard to eradicate completely.

My fight with Johnson grass continues... I hate that ****.

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Is there no safe time that it can be consumed by any herbivore, 2PaD? Could it be cut for ethanol, used for bedding?

Interesting, so I did a quick websearch and found that Johnson Grass has apparently been investigated as an ethanol source, along with other related species of plants.
http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0922-invasive.html
"Wiedenmann and his colleagues cite Sorghum halepense, or Johnson grass, as an example of a "seemingly benign" crop that became invasive species after its introduction in the United States. Johnson grass now causes up to $30 million a year in losses to the cotton and soybean industries in three states alone.
Wiedenmann says one proposed biofuel crop, Miscanthus, is of special concern because of its high rate of growth. Wiedenmann describes the plant, which can grow up to eight feet in six weeks, as "Johnson grass on steroids."
"Plants like these, particularly grasses, have great potential from an energy standpoint, but the benefits need to be balanced with the costs," Wiedenmann said.
Nevertheless, other scientists say Miscanthus holds promise as a biofuel source. "

1 Reply

@okie,

If it grows so well, over a foot a week, holy ****!!!, why not as a straight fuel source, ie. burning it in well designed boilers for farm and home energy needs?

It could be cut before its seeds are spread, which would also help in controlling the spread.

Where was it imported from?

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@JTT,

Beats me. Do a web search. I think it was already around when I was a little kid in the early 50's.

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@okie,

Quote:

Beats me. Do a web search.

Okay, so Parados was right. Okie knows nothing about farming. Wink

1 Reply

@JTT,

I found this, JTT, and do not know if that is a definitive for sure answer. I saw somewhere else that it may have come from Africa, which may not contradict "Middle East" either, as perhaps they overlap? It does seem to confirm it was around quite a while by the time I was born.
http://www.theinfomine.com/2010/08/17/origin-of-johnsongrass-and-best-way-to-kill-it/
"Where did Johnsongrass Come From?
Johnsongrass has been called one of the world’s ten worst weeds. So where did Johnsongrass originate from? It is native to the Mediterranean and grows throughout Europe and the Middle East. Since grains were first cultivated, Johnsongrass has been spreading around the world. It chokes out crops and cost millions of dollars a year to kill. It is believed to have arrived in the United States in flax seed harvested in the Middle East in the 1930′s. Johnsongrass propagates by both seeds and rhizomes, making it extremely hard to kill. Lately there are Roundup resistant varieties of Johnsongrass that could cause real problems for farmers. So far Roundup is still the best way to kill Johnsongrass"

1 Reply

@okie,

The stuff grows underground and does not depend on seeds for local propagation. Kind of like an aspen grove that turns out to be a single tree.

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@okie,

Gee, that sounds like it could have come from the CIA? Smile

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@roger,

Can't extensive cutting weaken a plant. I know that cutting costs but if it were then baled and burned in these huge outdoor furnaces designed to run on big straw bales, wood, grain, etc. it could provide a lot of heating energy.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

The stuff grows underground and does not depend on seeds for local propagation. Kind of like an aspen grove that turns out to be a single tree.

That's true, rhizomes I think. It does have some value in erosion control for that reason.

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@parados,

parados wrote:

Quote:
I am going from memory but I think he made some argument that he helped milk the cows or something, such as wash the strainer,
What do you say to others when they misrepresent what you said?
Oh.. that's right you call for an apology and call them names.
If you can find where I mentioned washing a strainer let me know. Until then, you are your usual lying sack of ****.
Quote:
I will also give parados high marks in being able to argue well, but that does not at all measure his honesty or intelligence,
It's funny that you should question the honesty of others in the same post you lie about what I said. Ironic, isn't it okie.

I am going to follow up on this, because parados credibility is at stake here. He has called me a liar, so I am not going to give him a pass.
Here is the post quoted below that I was referring to, which occurred when this discussion was beginning on the Obama thread. I was speaking from memory, and so although you did not mention "washing the strainer," you said something about pouring a pail of milk through a strainer. I am not at all far off, parados, so you get no apologies from me at all. In fact, you should be the guy apologizing. I would also point out that feeding the cows, locking them in stantions, washing their teats, putting on straps, and all of that is not the same as "milking the cows" as you claimed. Here is parados quote:

Quote:

I never said I milked them alone.
Milking involves many things: feeding the cows, locking them in their stanchions, washing their teats, putting the straps on them to hold the milker, putting on the machines, checking to see if the machine is ready to come off, removing the machine, pouring the milk from the machine into a pail, pouring the pail through the strainer into the bulk tank.
There are many parts that a 7 year old is capable of doing and some he can't.

I would suggest to you that washing an airplane is not the same as flying an airplane, nor is putting gas in a car the same as driving a car. Nor is filling a paint bucket the same as painting a house. I wonder parados, if you pulled the mower out of the garage for your dad to mow the lawn when you were 5 years old, would you have said you mowed the lawn at age 5?

P.S. When I was a kid, if somebody "milked cows," that almost always meant actually physically milking a cow with their hands instead of a machine. Later as machines took over, I remember the neighbor kid had to go "do the milking." He generally did not say he had to go "milk the cows." That may be splitting semantic hairs, but I think the language did change when the milkers came into common usage. I will say though that if you actually did everything necessary with the milking machines all by yourself at the age of 7, or if you had said you "helped with milking the cows" or "helped do the milking," that would have been more plausable and almost believable, parados, but when you said you milked the cows twice a day from age 7 to 16, I think that is more than a stretch. Just so parados does not accuse me of lying again about "7 to 16," he did say "about 16" Here was what parados originally claimed: "I milked cows twice a day from the age of 7 to about 16. I planted corn, wheat and baled hay. Which of those did you do on the farm you grew up on?"

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@okie,

Quote:

When I was a kid, if somebody "milked cows," that almost always meant actually physically milking a cow with their hands instead of a machine.

You really gotta watch it, Okie. It seems that that strain of paradosian cow barning is highly virulent. Stop posting for a week or so until you either get over it or you test negative.

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@okie,

Quote:

I was speaking from memory, and so although you did not mention "washing the strainer,"

So where is your apology okie?

Or do your standards still not apply to you?

1 Reply

@parados,

parados wrote:

Quote:
I was speaking from memory, and so although you did not mention "washing the strainer,"
So where is your apology okie?
Or do your standards still not apply to you?

I apologize for getting the splitting of hairs detail wrong, as you apparently said one of the things you did to milk the cows was to "pour the pail through the strainer into the bulk tank." However, I do not apologize for what I said, because the general meaning is exactly right as I had it, and I also pointed out that I was speaking from memory, so it is implied the detail might not be perfect. Here is my quote, which is exactly correct:

Quote:

"I am going from memory but I think he made some argument that he helped milk the cows or something, such as wash the strainer,"

To conclude, if you think pouring a pail of milk through a strainer into a bulk tank is milking the cows, that is your privilege, but I certainly do not. In fact, when I milked cows in Oklahoma when I was a kid, we actually milked them, ourselves, by hand. Our neighbors had more cows and they had milkers that milked the cows for them, but we did not. We milked them ourselves.

Do you think you have all of that understood now, parados? I know that is pretty complicated for you.

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@okie,

I can safely say that I have never participated in milking done by hand, Ive helped my AMISH neighbor who milks a herd of about 65 cows and he was recuperating from surgery. I helped another bunch of AMISH guys in the milking. My entire job was the disinfection and transfer piping and post milk disinfection. Wed do about 12 cows at a time. I ponce tried hand milking and I got nothing to come out. I could have bought her dinner and she wouldnt drop it. ANother guy came along and BAM , she loved his touch.

I could never be interesetd in running a dairy herd, you never get a day off!!.

My Irish Dexters and symmentals are all I need.Im a meatatarian.

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@farmerman,

your hands were prolly cold...

or you were giving off I wanna steak vibes.

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