Mangel seed

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds also sells Mammoth Red and Yellow Cylindrical (possibly they get it from Shumways . . . ) in reasonable quantities, both of which we’ve grown and been fairly pleased with – we haven’t really tried to store them yet, we just give them out to the CSA shareholders. We were surprised to find them tender and delicious even at impressive sizes. Someday we’ll try to grow enough to store and feed lots to the cattle and sheep over the winter (they do love them). Both are pretty high in water content – juicier than standard table beets. We’ve had a real hard time the past few years sourcing Lutz Green Leaf seed, but Lutz seems to get almost as big with higher solids. The main problem we have is meadow voles hollowing out their top halves, since they grow half above ground, particularly with the yellow (which is sweeter). Cleaner fields with less cover for the buggers would probably address that.
This year we’re going to trial and compare a sugar beet from J.L. Hudson, unfortunately not available in quantity. I don’t know where the sugar beet growers get their seed.
-Tevis

We haven’t done a good job thinning them properly to put their genetic potential to the real test. They were fairly similar in size, but a very different shape. The red is longer and pointy at both ends, whereas the yellow is fatter and blunt – rounded at both ends. The yellow is smoother and so cleans up easier, whereas the red tends to have creases that hold dirt. The red has bigger, nicer tops – we harvested some when the chard was a bit tired looking.
My guess is that under ideal conditions the red would get bigger. And we have very different soil than you, so they might act differently up there.
-Tevis

Do any of you feed mangels or other roots to your horses as a significant part of their diet? I was reading an article in a fairly recent SFJ (within the last six issues I think) about this and apparently it’s quite popular in England. The author emphasized growing the biggest ones you possibly can and then cutting them up with a shovel or an axe so the horse can bite the pieces.

Seems like an interesting alternative for those of us who don’t have the equipment or space to put up our own hay yet. And if you do a crappy job putting up your mangels they probably don’t burst into flames and burn down your barn (this is a tremendous fear of mine when it comes to learning about hay).:eek:

We haven’t feed beets to the horse yet, but the dairy cow and sheep get some. Mangels have a pretty high moisture content, sugar beets a little bit less so, but still mostly water. So nutritionally, it would take a HUGE heap of ’em to meet the nutritional needs of a horse. Plus, as Neal points out, it would probably kill the horse.
We look at them as a succulent supplement. While horses, cattle, and sheep don’t need or do well with simple sugars (which, nutritionally, is pretty much all that mangels and sugar beets are), we feel that succulent feeds are a healthy addition to the dry hay regime, as long as they aren’t overdone. I know one book I have basically says that the benefits in the health of the animal seem greater than a nutritional analysis can account for. Something is lost when fresh grass is turned into hay, so adding a little fresh food into the diet in the winter seems like a good thing. We don’t feed any grain, but sometimes use roots and winter squash as energy supplements.
-Tevis

Crabapple Farm, do you cook the squash before you feed it? Do you feed seeds and all?

I’d be interested if any of you have SFJ handy, if you look for that article on mangels, the author made it sound like he and others in his community fed them as a staple of the diet. I wonder if there are different strains that have lower sugar content or something.

Lil is still at Fair Winds Farm – Jay and Bekah are the soul of patience as we scramble to get ready for her. We had a great barn raising this weekend, we’re closing on it! (Jonathan was checking the dimensions after everything got nailed off – we had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers so the hammers were flying faster than the GC could keep up – and looked at me and said “I hope she is a little wider at the bottom than she is at the top.”) Props to Mark Cowdrey who made our day by showing up early, staying late, bringing tools, and being by far the most competent one of the bunch. 😀 Gotta love those Suffolk people.

@Julie Clemons 3272 wrote:

Crabapple Farm, do you cook the squash before you feed it? Do you feed seeds and all?

We don’t cook the squash, and feed them seeds and all (the seeds are actually the most nutritious bit, and possibly a wormer too). We find that it’s best if they’ve frozen a couple times, as that softens them enough for the animals to be able to bite into them if we feed them whole. Otherwise, we have to chop them up into bite-sized bits for the cattle. The sheep, like deer, can bite into pumpkins and most varieties of winter squash, especially if we get the pumkins started by lobbing them high in the air so they crack open when they hit the ground. Some varieties are too tough for them to eat easily, but those tend to be the varieties that our CSA shareholders and/or we prefer to eat ourselves anyway. Extra field pumpkins that we haven’t sold by halloween go into the stock fodder catagory.
-Tevis

It seems that everyone’s jumping on the mangel wagon – Johnny’s and Fedco are both offering seeds this year.
Fedco (bless them) mentions a good Mangold (Mangel) reference from Britain:

http://www.mangoldhurling.co.uk

Check it out, it’s worth looking at, even if you have no interest whatsoever in mangels, mangolds, or any other type of beet.
A new event for next year’s NEAPFD?
-Tevis