Comfrey for high protien feed?

[SPIKE]

I asked this on another thread, but though I would ask in its own thread.

http://www.nantahala-farm.com/comfrey.shtml

I am not advertising for the link above, but have been considering purchasing from them. Seems to be a good productive perinial plant that would supply a lot of high protien feed.
Anybody have any thoughts? Any warnings?
I am determined to come up with a way to keep feed cost down as much as possible for any animal I may decide to get for the homestead. And make it easy for me also!

SPIKE

[Dame]

Ask about in your neighbourhood, someone will likely be willing to give you some to start.

It growns quickly and easily in most conditions. Will winterkill if left exposed to very severe cold. Mine survives with minimum protection in -40F winters. I have never had to worry about removing flowers other than to keep it from self seeding. It spreads easily and needs to be cut back regularly. Each plant is large, leave at least 4'x4' per plant at maturity.

I dig mine up about every 3 years and through most of it in the compost pile. Once established a couple of perenial plants is all you will likely need.

[silvergramma]

I was given as much as I could dig up in one afternoon,, through all the roots on the compost pile and within 60 days aftercovering them they were back up and running,, I would use them sparingly as a supplement for chickens, goats and any food producing animals..not directly as feed tho.. there are other forage plants you can gather for that purpose..

[land steward]

I have done everything I can to kill mine. It is amazingly tough. Beware of where you plant it especially when digging it up. The root system is extensive. Personaly I hate it. dont try and kill it with a tiller. That just makes it mad. Glad to hear its good for something. We do cut the leaves and place them in the bucket to assist in making some manure tea for the garden. This works well.

[SPIKE]

Thanks for the input everyone.
There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there about comfrey. Mainly because of the alkaloids in it creating liver problems. It is very confusing. Some of what I read say the warnings are blown out of proportion. That would not surprise me.

I will probably try some. I have an area that it will be okay as far as the agressive growth goes. It appears to be an okay dietary supplement for a lot of different livestock (ruminants and non-ruminants), as long as it is not too much of the diet. Easily harvested, dried, and stored for later use. Good for soil ammending and plant fertilization.

SPIKE

[bookwormom]

I would give them a few leaves here and there, but only in addition. My goats are wild about it and if they get too much, they get diarrhea in short order. the geese love it and eat it down to the nub. I did not notice a negative reaction. I planted one next to every fruit tree. They are supposed to be very compatible and the comfrey adds phosphate to the soil. I think it was phosphate, am not sure. I dug up a lot of roots last fall and cleaned them, chopped them in the blender and covered them with vodka to make comfrey tincture. I made about six quart jars of it and I had to set some aside for us.

[Dame]

And what do you use comfrey tincture for?