I know this sounds pretty strange, but if you keep livestock, there is a cycle of poop eating that can enhance health and replace some feed. I know, I know… you’re thinking…
Are you nuts?
The thing is that animals do a great job digesting food and making manure. As an example, chickens essentially poop their body weight each month. Imagine that! In adult humans, that would mean expelling between 4 – 5lbs of poop a day. WOW.
But beyond loads of poop, animal manure is usually chock full of enzymes, good bacteria and amino acids. If you keep chickens, you probably know they are some of nature’s best garbage disposals. I call them feathered pigs. And if you keep other livestock and you allow your chickens to free range (or move them around in chicken tractors) you’ve probably also noticed chickens will pick through poop. They’ll go through poop of all kinds, cow, swine sheep or goat. (Funny thing, I’ve never seen them pick through my dogs’ poop. Too bad as I’d prefer them to get rid of it rather than me.)
What I didn’t know is you can feed chicken poop back to cows, swine and even sheep. Now we have an interesting cycle. One feeds the other through manure. Growth in this experiment was actually better than what you could achieve with normal purchased feed and it could save money. Here’s a chart I’ve coped from: FAQ Animal Production and Health Paper 18:
I’m not trying this now but with supply chain issues, shortages of feed in the future or really high cost could make this something I’d consider more strongly.