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Prickly pear cactus


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Anyone have any experience with feeding PPC to sheep? I have a number of large stands of spineless PP, I had to cut some back, and gave some of the pads and the tuna's to the sheep, they seemed to think it a pretty nice treat, as it was green, and with our drought, they've not seen much green in the last 6 months or so. I did some research on line, and it would seem that livestock do pretty well on it as a feed. There were a number of sheep studies as well, and the feed was praised for its nutritional content, and in addition it had the added bonus of having a very high moisture content. So, it got me to thinking, I can grow that stuff like crazy out here, I have to be careful it doesn't get out of control, and it takes no care/work/water on my part...I wonder if it would be worth it to plant some more, with the intent of harvesting it for feed. Obviously I wouldn't go straight PPC but might it cut down on the hay I have to feed? Also how would you feed it? just toss the pads or would cutting or chopping them up be better?

 

Betty

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My thought is similar to the idea of growing turnips for winter feed here. It's terrific stuff but as a long term mainstay I wonder about the time/cost input vs output. It sounds quite bulky - the sheep can at least harvest the turnips themselves but you have to have the room to stockpile it. It ends up being more practical for something like putting a finish on lambs.

 

It would be interesting to know. Prickly pear grows extremely well here too.

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Becca, as I don't have a large flock, only 10 head, it really woudn't be that much work/output for me to feed. But yes, I could see what you mean if you were going to try and use it as a forage for a large number, that would be a lot of work.

 

Bill I do eat it myself ;-) and doing some research on it, I may start eating more! Looks like its pretty good for you, along with the fiber, it also lowers cholesterol, and its also supposed to be good for diabetics in controlling blood sugar levels. Pretty interesting plant.

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