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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Back to Traditional Farming to Beat Climate Change - Herder Vs. Farmer

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  • From: Pumpkin Lady <pumpkingal@clearwire.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Back to Traditional Farming to Beat Climate Change - Herder Vs. Farmer
  • Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:11:35 -0500

Zachary Domike wrote:

"Morgan, who has miniature goats and lives in the land of acres per cow, not cows
per acre."

I am certain Harvey supports riparian zones to keep cattle away from streams,

What streams? Playa lakes, maybe. Around here anyway.

Environmental degradation at the hooves of big animals has brought blight and erosion to millions of acres in my lifetime.

That's because they are fenced in one area. When bison roamed the west they wandered in and wandered out, constantly moving. That doesn't work when people own land. They want their land for their use. If the animal constantly ranges, and I mean MILES, not acres, damage is minimal, in fact, I'm pretty sure that's why prairies were prairies, they were built by nature for the bison to come through, strip off the grass, fertilize it, and move on. That's the way the ecosystem works best for it.

The guy next to me has one pasture full of weeds that he plows constantly. There is almost nothing in it for his horse to eat, he has to truck in hay. The pasture is 2-3 acres, but nothing good for the horse grows there because the horse wanders around eating whatever it can find that it thinks is edible. If he would cut it into 3 areas, his horse would need a lot less hay because he could control what it walked over and let parts recover. The horse couldn't erode it all.

My goats have small pastures and I move them from one to another to let the land recover from damage and also to cut down on worm load in the goats. I am trying out some movable electric netting soon that should basically let me never have to pasture them on the same spot more than once every year(or less) if I work at it and if it works out. I'm not precisely sure how long the grass will hold out in one area, if it is a month I won't have to touch the same area for years. Then again, my goats are 50 - 80 lbs and stand 18 - 25 inches tall, I COULD have kept them on the lawn of the house I had in town if it was allowable. I don't water my pastures much, I'd rather move them and keep them from doing major damage in just one pen.

It is still unclear who is responsible for the fences - the herder or the
farmer?

Well, since my goats are smaller than most dogs and since my goats are dairy goats and I NEED to see them at least twice a day or their udders might bust, I keep them close to home. They've never made it off my property, and afaict, they have no desire to. When they get out (which is rare) they come stand on the steps of whatever door is closest and holler for me to come see them. They WILL come in if I don't keep them out, and they don't go bugnuts when they are inside although I don't really WANT them inside. At least one of them was bottle raised and thinks she belongs in the house. (yes, you can housebreak a goat)

Meat goats (or other meat animals) do not have that same kind of relationship with their people. You can't do it. I have eaten animals I raised before, but you can't get that close to them or it will tear you up emotionally to eat them. It's different if they get killed and you dress them out so as to not waste the meat, but I can't raise a "pet" for slaughter.

As far as the fence issue goes, I am not sure legally, but I feel if I have animals I need my property fenced. However, if your animals come on my property and I can take pictures of them there, I can get damages for what they do legally, and if your dog/coyote/wolf/whatever comes on my property and kills my animals you owe me damages AND I'm within my legal rights to shoot it. I don't have to wait for it to kill anything, either. I've addressed this issue this year - a pack of wild dogs came in and killed a bunch of my pregnant does and boy was I devastated. Since that happened, though, the sheriff deputy took pictures and left me a sheet with my legal rights. He wanted it made clear to me I could kill the suckers if they were stupid enough to come back.

Morgan




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