Homestead mailing list

[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

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Date:   Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:43:12 -0500
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From: tvoivozd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
To: fteuton AT total.net
Cc: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re: Planning pasture Parades; or which comes first, the 
chicken or the horse (and how about them rooter tillin pigs?)
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Frank Teuton wrote:

> Hello homesteaders:
>
> Over on the OGL list Kevin Chisholm asked about animals for clearing
> land, which I've been thinking about. Known browsers like goats and
> Scottish Highland cattle fit part of the bill; then there's pigs, who'll
> root and destroy lots of vegetation, etc. I thought it might be
> interesting for those who have used animals to (ahem) pasturize land,
> and especially woody brush areas,

tvoivozhd>>>goats to eat the brush, and hogs (unringed) to root up small and
medium-sized stumps---and big ones enough so you can finish the job with
horses or tractor.  A little corn in holes around the stumps will work
wonders as an incentive---as it will in turning a compost pile.

> to share some pointers on things to
> look out for, how to know when to take off animals, and what they can
> and can't be expected to do.
>
> Also, I've a memory of the normal sequence of animals following each
> other on pasture: horse-->cattle-->sheep-->poultry, each being able to
> profit best from grass descending from tallest to shortest. Those who
> pasture pigs, would you ring their noses?

tvoivozhd>>>absolutely.

> and where would they fit best
> in the parade?

tvoivozhd>>>following cattle to eat the manure.  If they are ringed, they
will also eat a fair amount of grass instead of digging it up for more
nutritious roots and grubs as is their normal inclination.

You can dispense with free-ranging, well-fenced hogs for this purpose
(eating manure, eggs and larvae it contains) if you have a sufficient number
of ducks or chickens in movable wire-bottom (against predators) pens.

You have to keep the hogs away from late-pregnancy cattle and newborn
calves.  Given the slightest opportunity of entrapment, they will eat your
ducks, chickens and small children too.

You can get more revenue per acre(maybe, depending on the lamb market and
whether you knit a lot of sweaters) by running sheep with cows. The
seldom-mentioned downside is that the purpose and effect of using MIG and
cattle alone, is to quickly reduce the days pasture ration to a height from
which it has sufficient photosynthesis capacity and root-reserves to quickly
regenerate---and get the cattle off so it can do so.

The warm-weather grass doesn't care whether cows or sheep take it down to
four inches---either species has to get off at that point.  Around here
predator loss, multiplied fencing cost, foot-trimming, and shearing cost,
the negative value of mutton,  makes running sheep with cattle a moot point.

Given sufficient moisture, you can graze warm weather grasses down to four
inches, within which their energy reserves lie (not in their roots where
legume reserves are).  If you graze it below that height, forget about
regrowth for a long, long time, and watch your per-acre forage profits
shrink.

>
>
> Frank--more concerned about the yak to kildeer ratio (too many
> kildeer=deforestation) than other eschatological scenarios.

tvoivozhd>>>Use your idle wintertime hours to knit black angus sweaters for
your yaks so the neighbors don't suspect you are raising them---they gossip
a lot and probably question your sanity already.

> ..
>
> "My excuse for riding the caboose is if the train hits a moose or a
> flippin' chip cuts loose, I've a better chance of slipping the noose."
> --from Frank's upcoming collection of dastardly doggerel and ditties.