Market Farming

["Margaret L Wilson" <booldawgs AT cavenet.com>]

Last year we built stock panel hoop houses in the area where we wanted new 
planting beds.  We wintered about 50 head of Shetland sheep in the two 
shelters.  They also had access to grazing in good weather but were usually 
in the shelters eating.  There was an area about an acre that they were 
confined to with a predator electric fence.  They were bedded on lots of 
straw and fed alfalfa hay.  In late spring they were moved and we uncovered 
the hoop shelters.  There was a layer of straw, alfalfa, manure and urine 
about 2-3 feet deep.  We just let it decompose for a couple of months, dug it 
loose with the backhoe and spread it in rows.  I tilled it in a bit, watered 
it a few times and left it alone.  The soil where we will plant soon is 
loose,black and filled with earthworms.  The chickens and turkeys scratched 
and hunted for bugs all summer and up till our snow pack of the last few 
days.  The paths between the beds have filled in with clover.  It was 
originally old worn out pasture with a very thin layer of topsoil.  The beds 
have a good growth of grass and clover and weeds.  I think we will try 
killing the weeds with clear plastic or maybe just a light tilling and burn 
the weeds with a propane weed killer.
It sure was easier than cleaning the barn and hauling it to the garden.  The 
chickens, guineas and turkeys have gotten rid of the grasshoppers too.

Margaret SW Oregon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JOHN A HENDRICKSON" <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: January 03, 2005 11:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Nitrogen Sources, pigs and chickens


> 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. 
> 
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