Growing Fodder

With the temps hovering at a balmy -5 today and a promise of almost -35 tonight, I thought I'd feed extra to our critters.  I grabbed the sugar beets out of the cellar and sliced them up for treats.  I've never fed out sugar beets before, I knew that horses usually love them, but didn't know how everyone else would react.
Well...the donkeys love them, the goats love them, the rabbits love them, I ran out before I got to the chicken coop, but from what I've read, the chickens should love them, too.
I grow extra pumpkins and corn every summer to help out with our feed costs in the winter.  Nettles and comfrey are dried and fed out to the chickens and the goats, too.  I've now decided that sugar beets or mangels will be grown to help out.  I think I'll go with the mangels as they get larger. 

  (picture from wolftree farms)

I found a great site that talks about growing your own fodder on your homestead.  http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Growing-Poultry-Feeds-1.html
This site looks to have a lot of information for anyone thinking about cutting feeding costs.
I don't know if I'll be able to grow enough to keep our herd of beef cattle through the winter, but I'm excited to try growing this new crop.