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Old July 26th 07, 05:15 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
Val
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 587
Default OT- Finch feeders

You were just passing along what info your BIL told you. I wasn't taking pot
shots at the messenger That information came from the USDA site, among
others, and was passed along in my birding newsgroup quite awhile ago when
one of our members had a neighbor try to sue him for the invasive
infestation of thistles spreading on the neighbor's property. Because of
documented, credible research he obviously didn't win the law suit. IF you
could ever get that seed to sprout it would look like a sunflower plant, not
a thistle. The chances of it germinating in gardens in the US is slim to
none. The growers who tried this crop as an alternative were in
Saskatchewan, California, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. The Niger seed is
42% oil, great energy source for the birds and yields more oil per ton of
seed than the sunflowers grown for oil in this country. You might pass this
information on to you BIL. Maybe he could figure out a way to grow Niger and
get rich

Val


"KJ" wrote in message
news:se3qi.23907$Xa3.77@attbi_s22...
Not my fields....no research on my part. Just repeating what I was told.
Won't do that anymore! g

--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz
"Val" wrote in message
...

"KJ" wrote in message
news:rD2qi.23883$Xa3.5373@attbi_s22...
My brother in law the farmer dislikes birders putting thistle seeds in
feeders. It increases the likelihood of his fields having more thistles
in them. I usually just get different sizes of sunflower hearts.

--


FYI: bird feeder thistle seed

Niger thistle (Guizotia abyssinica) is an annual plant, which belongs to
the sunflower family. The crop is used exclusively as bird seed in the
U.S.A. but is valued as an oilseed in other countries. The seed contains
approximately 42% oil, composed primarily of linoleic acid.

Currently, the entire U.S. usage of niger (approximately 70 million
pounds annually) is imported from India, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Nepal.

Several farming regions in the United States and Canada have tried to
grow Niger as an alternative crop but have thus been unsuccessful.

Those thistles in your BIL's field are *not* from bird feeders.

Val





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