Sunflower Power

Before we switched to a packaged Dairy Ration to feed our dairy cows, we mixed our own ration.  One of the components of the ration was Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.  Black Oil Sunflower seeds give supplemental nutrition to cows, specifically fatty acids and higher milk protein.  Since switching to the ration, we haven't purchased sunflower seeds for them.  We feel that they are getting good nutrition from the ration AND a 50 lb bag of black oil sunflower seeds was doggone expensive!

My parents went on their annual trip to South Dakota to visit with family and friends and to hunt for pheasants and brought back two sunflower heads for us.  I have them pictured below.  I should have put my hand in the photo for comparison purposes as you can't really discern the size of the sunflowers.  Trust me, they are bigger than my head!  The item on top of them is one of the many louffa gourds we grow, and I'll post on that perhaps later this week.

We ate some of the seeds right off the head but decided to go ahead and feed the rest to the milk cows.  These, I think, are confectionary sunflower seeds and not black oil sunflower seeds, but I read that they are still considered beneficial feed for cattle.  It was a beautiful afternoon, so Tricia and I stood on the back patio and pulled all the seeds off the heads and captured them in a bucket.

I snacked on a few walking to the barn.  They taste great right off the flower head.  Mom & Dad also bring us bags of South Dakota sunflowers in dill pickle flavor, barbecue flavor, and bacon flavor.  We devour those things!  The cows, however, are getting the regular unsalted flavor.

Since Benjamin will be showing Clarabelle in the Jefferson Davis Parish Livestock Show, we decided to give her the sunflower seeds so she'd get the benefit of the fat supplement in her diet.  Oddly, she picked around the seeds and only ate the dairy ration.  She lifted her big head and chewed funny.  I guess the texture was new to her.  I certainly didn't want to waste the South Dakota sunflowers.  I thought about feeding them to our hens, but then Tricia suggested that we feed them to our other dairy cow, Rosie.  She's in milk and could benefit from the seeds.  We dumped them into her trough, and she quickly gobbled them all up and moaned for more.  Clarabelle's pickiness caused her to lose out on a mighty fine and nutritious meal.