URI:
   DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Global Collapse
  HTML https://globalcollapse.createaforum.com
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       *****************************************************
   DIR Return to: General Discussion
       *****************************************************
       #Post#: 3391--------------------------------------------------
       Re: More Wheat Errata
       By: RE Date: May 15, 2022, 1:47 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=K-Dog link=topic=66.msg3388#msg3388
       date=1652635053]
       Normally they don't export much.  Before the heatwave
       expectations had been for a bumper crop.  Plans were to replace
       some of the lost Ukraine wheat with Indian wheat.
       [/quote]
       In addition to Ukraine and India, Brazil, Peru and Argentina all
       are experiencing "smaller than expected" wheat harvests.  Who's
       gonna make up the shortfall?
       RE
       #Post#: 3392--------------------------------------------------
       Re: More Wheat Errata
       By: Phil Potts Date: May 15, 2022, 8:43 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=RE link=topic=66.msg3391#msg3391 date=1652640428]
       [quote author=K-Dog link=topic=66.msg3388#msg3388
       date=1652635053]
       Normally they don't export much.  Before the heatwave
       expectations had been for a bumper crop.  Plans were to replace
       some of the lost Ukraine wheat with Indian wheat.
       [/quote]
       In addition to Ukraine and India, Brazil, Peru and Argentina all
       are experiencing "smaller than expected" wheat harvests.  Who's
       gonna make up the shortfall?
       RE
       [/quote]
       us is down 5-10% on wheat, I think digwe posted. Oz one of the
       biggest in the world has had 2 major east coast floods in short
       succession recently so will also impact.
       #Post#: 3406--------------------------------------------------
       The Energy/Food Crisis Is Far Worse than Most Americans Realize
       By: RE Date: May 18, 2022, 2:59 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       They'll know soon enough.  Classic Heinberg article.
  HTML https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-05-16/the-energy-food-crisis-is-far-worse-than-most-americans-realize/
       The Energy/Food Crisis Is Far Worse than Most Americans Realize
       RE
       #Post#: 3407--------------------------------------------------
       Re: The Energy/Food Crisis Is Far Worse than Most Americans Real
       ize
       By: moniker Date: May 18, 2022, 8:21 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=RE link=topic=66.msg3406#msg3406 date=1652903985]
       They'll know soon enough.  Classic Heinberg article.
  HTML https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-05-16/the-energy-food-crisis-is-far-worse-than-most-americans-realize/
       The Energy/Food Crisis Is Far Worse than Most Americans Realize
       RE
       [/quote]
       I have been very pessimistic about their plans for the world for
       some time now, but I was skeptical that they could collapse the
       whole thing.
       But it looks like they are on the way to accomplishing their
       goal of exterminating most of the people.
       It will end in a tremendous crescendo of war, famine, pandemic,
       pestilence and who knows what else.
       #Post#: 3408--------------------------------------------------
       Putin has Wheat
       By: K-Dog Date: May 19, 2022, 2:06 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=RE link=topic=66.msg3391#msg3391 date=1652640428]
       [quote author=K-Dog link=topic=66.msg3388#msg3388
       date=1652635053]
       Normally they don't export much.  Before the heatwave
       expectations had been for a bumper crop.  Plans were to replace
       some of the lost Ukraine wheat with Indian wheat.
       [/quote]
       In addition to Ukraine and India, Brazil, Peru and Argentina all
       are experiencing "smaller than expected" wheat harvests.  Who's
       gonna make up the shortfall?
       RE
       [/quote]
       "Droughts, flooding and heatwaves threaten output from the U.S.
       to France and India, compounding shrinking production in
       Ukraine. Just about every major producing region is facing one
       threat or another. The one notable exception is Russia, which is
       shaping up for a bumper crop and stands to benefit from the
       rising prices and limited supply elsewhere.
       Who will get us out of this mess?
       [img]
  HTML https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.jZckKqc-Rmk0-rvyUQ-Q_gHaHa%26pid%3DApi&f=1[/img]
       Food crisis deepens as global wheat harvest is threatened by
       extreme weather
       As Russia’s invasion chokes off Ukrainian wheat exports, pushing
       up bread and noodle prices, the global harvest faces an added
       test: extreme weather.   Droughts, flooding and heatwaves
       threaten output from the US to France and India, compounding
       shrinking production in Ukraine.
       [img
       width=700]
  HTML https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/tillage/grain-prices/a1b9d/41653385.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240/il%20biden%20meets%20farmers[/img]
       Keeping farmers in the loop: US President Joe Biden speaks to
       tillage farmers in Kankakee, Illinois.
  HTML https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/tillage/grain-prices/food-crisis-deepens-as-global-wheat-harvest-is-threatened-by-extreme-weather-41653391.html
       #Post#: 3415--------------------------------------------------
       ‘We are going to die’: Food shortages worsen Sri Lanka crisis
       By: RE Date: May 21, 2022, 3:44 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Will we get stats on how many die & how fast?
  HTML https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/20/we-are-going-to-die-food-crisis-worsens-misery-of-sri-lankans
       ‘We are going to die’: Food shortages worsen Sri Lanka crisis
       RE
       #Post#: 3431--------------------------------------------------
       With food prices climbing, the U.N. is warning of crippling glob
       al shortages
       By: RE Date: May 24, 2022, 4:41 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Can U Spell S-T-A-R-V-A-T-I-O-N?
  HTML https://www.npr.org/2022/05/23/1100592132/united-nations-food-shortages
       With food prices climbing, the U.N. is warning of crippling
       global shortages
       RE
       #Post#: 3467--------------------------------------------------
       Soaring fertiliser prices force farmers to rethink
       By: RE Date: May 28, 2022, 6:38 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61385111
       Soaring fertiliser prices force farmers to rethink
       #Post#: 3471--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Food Errata
       By: Digwe Must Date: May 28, 2022, 1:47 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Feeding critters during collapse
       We all know about the inflation in food prices.  Of course,
       animal feed is jumping just as fast in price as human food - or
       faster.  I've written about this before.  Consider this an
       update.
       Chickens. Yesterday at the feed store Mrs. Digwe paid $75 for 3
       bags of chicken feed (120lb.). The cheapest available was $19 a
       40lb sack -it's a local brand that has really deteriorated in
       quality over the last year while rising in price from $11.  The
       better quality cost $28! each.  This is double the price from a
       year ago.  We've begun fermenting the grain, resulting in a
       roughly 25% reduction in consumption.  It's hard to tell
       precisely because at the same time we began doing this (early
       spring) the chickens started getting some good nutrition from
       bugs, green growth and scratch.  The eggs are getting that nice
       orange color and the girls seem happy and enthusiastic about the
       fermented grain.
       So... mealworms.  I'm a closeted worm wrangler.  I'm raising
       mealworms in a closet.  If it works out and proves practical and
       economical I will expand the tiny operation.  Of course the
       chickens are very pro-mealworm.  Northwest Seed and Supply in
       Spokane sells 5lb. bags of dried mealworms for $99!!. I've also
       started a bin of red wiggler compost worms and will expand those
       to other bins and compost as the weather warms. We are in the
       wrong climate for soldier flies - but I think they're very
       appealing from an efficiency point of view.
       I'm also trying to grow some duckweed in a very small tub - just
       to see if I can.  I keep about 10,000 gallons of water in
       Walmart backyard pools, uphill from the house, during fire
       season and I'd like to try and grow some duckweed in them.
       Unfortunately, the nights may be too cool for the duckweed to
       grow rapidly enough to make sense.
       I've mentioned that I buy oats by the ton from a local farmer,
       the same guy I buy hay from. This year I'm also going to get a
       ton of barley to see how the chickens like it sprouted.  They'll
       eat sprouted oats, but the oats seem to take longer to actually
       grow a tail.  Sprouted barley has been recommended to me as a
       good feed nutritionally.  We'll see.  I can't grow grain here
       because we are in the forested hills and I simply don't have the
       right ground.  In a pinch I can feed alfalfa hay to the chickens
       and geese - but they won't lay well - or at all- on just that.
       We're trying to expand the garden this year to add to the
       chickens' diet.  I'd like to grow a small mountain of spuds if
       the growing season is any more benign than the furnace we had
       last year.  They have to be cooked, of course, before feeding to
       a mono-gastric critter, but because we heat with wood that won't
       be an additional expense.
       I was very concerned about the fruit trees after the heat stress
       of last year.  However, the stress seems to have prompted the
       trees - especially the plums and pears - to put out a massive
       amount of blooms this spring.  It has been cool and damp so far,
       which makes it a bit challenging for the bees and other
       pollinators.  If we do get a good yield of fruit that will also
       help with the animal feed.  The geese, turkeys and chickens all
       come running when some pulp from processing or culls come there
       way. As I've also mentioned before, we have numerous seed
       bearing trees planted that will someday yield quite a bit of
       feed for the birds.  Trees take a while and that will be far
       enough into the future that I may be planted myself when it
       happens.
       Sheep and GoatsI could not do the necessary butchering this
       winter because my hands (and occasionally back) were so bad.  As
       a result I have too many sheep and had to buy hay out of season.
       Extremely expensive, because of the poor crop last year.  The
       goats have a wide ranging palate.  If I had to I could keep them
       alive all winter on fir tree limbs.  They eat the needles and
       strip the bark with gusto.  Our sheep, Navajo Churro, are a
       breed developed on rough forage in hard country.  So, they do
       fairly well when I supplement hay with limbs, brush etc.  Of
       course we have pasture available now - but I'm trying to let the
       pasture recover after last years heat and drought -and I have
       too many sheep, so I'm still feeding hay.  I have this year's
       hay reserved with my farmer - but I expect it to be very
       expensive (even though a cool wet May should help with the crop)
       and must get my number of critters down.
       Dogs We have 5 dogs.  I know.  My only justification is that 2
       of them actually work for a living. We have 3 livestock guardian
       dogs, one of which is retired and has claimed a life of ease as
       his pension.  Then there are 2 small terriers that I have no
       justification for.  I just like 'em.  To be fair, we have
       trained one of the little ones to herd the geese and keep the
       turkeys out of the garden.  As you know, commercial dog food is
       getting absurdly expensive.  So, when I butcher sheep the dogs
       obviously have fresh mutton and lamb to eat.  It pains me
       sometimes to realize the retail price of the meat I'm giving
       them.  But they do very well on it.  I also get bones from a
       local butcher which I render down (or just feed the larger
       meatier bones straight).  This is really good stuff and they do
       well on it also.  Being free, the price is right and worth the
       work.
       Which leads me to my score of the week - maybe the month.
       I got a call Thursday from Lyle the butcher.  He had a whole
       beef in his cooler that had some bone sour.  He had to dispose
       of the entire carcass.  It was on his trailer ready for a trip
       to the dump.  Did I want it?  So, a half hour later  I had an
       entire 800lb steer on a tarp in front of the garage.  One side
       was whole.  He'd already cut the other side into the large
       chunks necessary to process and package.  That half was in 3
       large trash bags.  It was 60 degrees and the flies were out so I
       had to move fast. At my age that was no small task.  The bone
       sour had started in the forequarter which is where it usually
       starts.  About 80% of the meat was still good but Lyle has
       ethics.  I owe him a jug of whiskey.
       I filled a freezer with beef chunks jammed in as tight as I
       could.  I also have an old fridge I use just for meat.  I took
       out all the shelves and bins and it is stacked with milk crates
       jammed with meat.  Also the freezer in the fridge is packed.
       They dogs ate rib eyes that night - complete with the rib.
       Because of the pace I had to generate with knives and saw I got
       a lot on me.  The mess and aroma that I wore did not exactly
       appeal to Mrs Digwe.  But the dogs loved me.  My hands are
       killing me - but the CBD cannabis helps with that.  I still have
       much processing to do - but good quality commercial dogfood goes
       for around $2 lb.  Maybe a little less on sale.  So, this works
       well for me.
       Now the question becomes where am I going to put the butchered
       lambs and sheep.  A good problem to have in these times.
       As you all know, the cost of farmers' inputs is going to see a
       dramatic, continued price rise in food - even if there is a good
       crop in the country this year.
       Now I need to go burn a brush pile and dig a greenhouse
       foundation.
       I see I have once again gone on too long.
       "Writing is not something necessarily to be ashamed of, but do
       it in private and wash your hands afterwards."  - Robert
       Heinlein
       #Post#: 3472--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Food Errata
       By: RE Date: May 28, 2022, 2:43 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=Digwe Must link=topic=66.msg3471#msg3471
       date=1653763664]
       Feeding critters during collapse
       We all know about the inflation in food prices.  Of course,
       animal feed is jumping just as fast in price as human food - or
       faster.  I've written about this before.  Consider this an
       update.
       Chickens. Yesterday at the feed store Mrs. Digwe paid $75 for 3
       bags of chicken feed (120lb.). The cheapest available was $19 a
       40lb sack -it's a local brand that has really deteriorated in
       quality over the last year while rising in price from $11.  The
       better quality cost $28! each.  This is double the price from a
       year ago.  We've begun fermenting the grain, resulting in a
       roughly 25% reduction in consumption.  It's hard to tell
       precisely because at the same time we began doing this (early
       spring) the chickens started getting some good nutrition from
       bugs, green growth and scratch.  The eggs are getting that nice
       orange color and the girls seem happy and enthusiastic about the
       fermented grain.
       So... mealworms.  I'm a closeted worm wrangler.  I'm raising
       mealworms in a closet.  If it works out and proves practical and
       economical I will expand the tiny operation.  Of course the
       chickens are very pro-mealworm.  Northwest Seed and Supply in
       Spokane sells 5lb. bags of dried mealworms for $99!!. I've also
       started a bin of red wiggler compost worms and will expand those
       to other bins and compost as the weather warms. We are in the
       wrong climate for soldier flies - but I think they're very
       appealing from an efficiency point of view.
       I'm also trying to grow some duckweed in a very small tub - just
       to see if I can.  I keep about 10,000 gallons of water in
       Walmart backyard pools, uphill from the house, during fire
       season and I'd like to try and grow some duckweed in them.
       Unfortunately, the nights may be too cool for the duckweed to
       grow rapidly enough to make sense.
       I've mentioned that I buy oats by the ton from a local farmer,
       the same guy I buy hay from. This year I'm also going to get a
       ton of barley to see how the chickens like it sprouted.  They'll
       eat sprouted oats, but the oats seem to take longer to actually
       grow a tail.  Sprouted barley has been recommended to me as a
       good feed nutritionally.  We'll see.  I can't grow grain here
       because we are in the forested hills and I simply don't have the
       right ground.  In a pinch I can feed alfalfa hay to the chickens
       and geese - but they won't lay well - or at all- on just that.
       We're trying to expand the garden this year to add to the
       chickens' diet.  I'd like to grow a small mountain of spuds if
       the growing season is any more benign than the furnace we had
       last year.  They have to be cooked, of course, before feeding to
       a mono-gastric critter, but because we heat with wood that won't
       be an additional expense.
       I was very concerned about the fruit trees after the heat stress
       of last year.  However, the stress seems to have prompted the
       trees - especially the plums and pears - to put out a massive
       amount of blooms this spring.  It has been cool and damp so far,
       which makes it a bit challenging for the bees and other
       pollinators.  If we do get a good yield of fruit that will also
       help with the animal feed.  The geese, turkeys and chickens all
       come running when some pulp from processing or culls come there
       way. As I've also mentioned before, we have numerous seed
       bearing trees planted that will someday yield quite a bit of
       feed for the birds.  Trees take a while and that will be far
       enough into the future that I may be planted myself when it
       happens.
       Sheep and GoatsI could not do the necessary butchering this
       winter because my hands (and occasionally back) were so bad.  As
       a result I have too many sheep and had to buy hay out of season.
       Extremely expensive, because of the poor crop last year.  The
       goats have a wide ranging palate.  If I had to I could keep them
       alive all winter on fir tree limbs.  They eat the needles and
       strip the bark with gusto.  Our sheep, Navajo Churro, are a
       breed developed on rough forage in hard country.  So, they do
       fairly well when I supplement hay with limbs, brush etc.  Of
       course we have pasture available now - but I'm trying to let the
       pasture recover after last years heat and drought -and I have
       too many sheep, so I'm still feeding hay.  I have this year's
       hay reserved with my farmer - but I expect it to be very
       expensive (even though a cool wet May should help with the crop)
       and must get my number of critters down.
       Dogs We have 5 dogs.  I know.  My only justification is that 2
       of them actually work for a living. We have 3 livestock guardian
       dogs, one of which is retired and has claimed a life of ease as
       his pension.  Then there are 2 small terriers that I have no
       justification for.  I just like 'em.  To be fair, we have
       trained one of the little ones to herd the geese and keep the
       turkeys out of the garden.  As you know, commercial dog food is
       getting absurdly expensive.  So, when I butcher sheep the dogs
       obviously have fresh mutton and lamb to eat.  It pains me
       sometimes to realize the retail price of the meat I'm giving
       them.  But they do very well on it.  I also get bones from a
       local butcher which I render down (or just feed the larger
       meatier bones straight).  This is really good stuff and they do
       well on it also.  Being free, the price is right and worth the
       work.
       Which leads me to my score of the week - maybe the month.
       I got a call Thursday from Lyle the butcher.  He had a whole
       beef in his cooler that had some bone sour.  He had to dispose
       of the entire carcass.  It was on his trailer ready for a trip
       to the dump.  Did I want it?  So, a half hour later  I had an
       entire 800lb steer on a tarp in front of the garage.  One side
       was whole.  He'd already cut the other side into the large
       chunks necessary to process and package.  That half was in 3
       large trash bags.  It was 60 degrees and the flies were out so I
       had to move fast. At my age that was no small task.  The bone
       sour had started in the forequarter which is where it usually
       starts.  About 80% of the meat was still good but Lyle has
       ethics.  I owe him a jug of whiskey.
       I filled a freezer with beef chunks jammed in as tight as I
       could.  I also have an old fridge I use just for meat.  I took
       out all the shelves and bins and it is stacked with milk crates
       jammed with meat.  Also the freezer in the fridge is packed.
       They dogs ate rib eyes that night - complete with the rib.
       Because of the pace I had to generate with knives and saw I got
       a lot on me.  The mess and aroma that I wore did not exactly
       appeal to Mrs Digwe.  But the dogs loved me.  My hands are
       killing me - but the CBD cannabis helps with that.  I still have
       much processing to do - but good quality commercial dogfood goes
       for around $2 lb.  Maybe a little less on sale.  So, this works
       well for me.
       Now the question becomes where am I going to put the butchered
       lambs and sheep.  A good problem to have in these times.
       As you all know, the cost of farmers' inputs is going to see a
       dramatic, continued price rise in food - even if there is a good
       crop in the country this year.
       Now I need to go burn a brush pile and dig a greenhouse
       foundation.
       I see I have once again gone on too long.
       "Writing is not something necessarily to be ashamed of, but do
       it in private and wash your hands afterwards."  - Robert
       Heinlein
       [/quote]
       DAMN I wish I had the Diner Blog still up!  This is 1st Class
       Blog material.  Kudos.
       RE
       *****************************************************
   DIR Previous Page
   DIR Next Page