Market Farming

[JOHN A HENDRICKSON <jhendric AT wisc.edu>]

Paul and others, 

When do you run the pigs and/or chickens down your rows?  I've always
been curious about vegetable systems that involve animals "in the
rotation" but also know that you have to be very careful about disease
pathogens.  If anyone else has animals on their farms I would be curious
to hear about how they are used as on-site fertility providers (beyond
just collecting and composting and spreading their manure).  For
example, I once heard a presentation by a fellow from Indiana (I think)
who was developing and testing various crop-animal systems on his farm.
 The one I recall best is his turkey-asparagus system in which he put
his small turkey flock in his asparagus patch AFTER he was done
harvesting for the year and the turkeys apparently did an excellent job
keeping down the weeds and eating the aspargus beetles.  They also
obviously supplied a good deal of nitrogen to the ground as well (I
wonder if it was perhaps too much?...).  I believe one of his other
systems involved planting garlic where he had recently grazed sheep or
cattle.  Any interesting success (or failure) stories out there?

-John (normally in Wisconsin, on the border of zone 4 and 5, but
currently spending a year in snowy, snowy northern Japan)

> I run Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs (2 per cage) and or
> chickens in a cage with no bottom (cage 3X6) down the
> center of the rows and let them dig the manure in and
> weed at the same time.