permaculture

[d.settles@cellbio.duke.edu (Dan Settles, Dept. of Cell Biology DUMC)]

On Sat, 11 Oct 1997 YankeePerm@aol.com wrote:

> Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:54:16 -0400 (EDT)
> From: YankeePerm@aol.com
> To: askpv@ozemail.com.au, owner-permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu,
>     permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
> Subject: Re: Applications [strip crops]
>
> In a message dated 10/9/97 9:33:52 AM, askpv@ozemail.com.au (April
> Sampson-Kelly) wrote:
>
> >The difference between strip farming with poultry free range in between the
> >strips
> >and actually using tractors-  is the concentration of birds on the soil,
> >this concentration can quickly denude an
> >area which is open to weed seed or your seed.
> >This is desirable for intensive beds but may be a unnecessary for large
> >scale farming.
> >When I use the chickens in a small concentration here I am left with woody
> >plants and sedges and a mix of less tasty plants (tasty for hens) but there
> >is a wider control of pests such as insects, caterpillars, slugs and
> >snails.
> >For orchard maintenance you could use 100 birds to the acre [Mollison] it
> >all depends on how much understorey or ground cover
> >there is for the birds to eat.

>  There is no reason not to grow grain for chickens in the forages when
> chickens are out, or other crops and agroforestry naturally fits in.  My
> chickens really don't like to come out from under the trees and I have 
> wasted
> grain trying to entice them into certain open areas to break up bovine 
> manure
> pats for fly control.  They just left the grain there, much to the delight 
> of
> the cardinals and other wild birds.
>
> For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway
------------------
Thought I'd share a little of my experince with poultry.  We have 22
ducks and 11 chickens that are free ranging in a fenced 1 acre combination
pasture/ wooded area.  They share this area with 4 calves and 5 goats at
the moment.  The area is definitely not big enough to provide forage for
the calves, but they need supplemental feed (grain) at this young
state of their lives. The majority of the grain is corn and the calves do
not completely digest it, so the manure is loaded with lots of small corn
pieces.

The ducks discovered this food source recently and have done an
excellent job of breaking up the manure in search of the corn.  At first
they appeared to be very selective about picking the corn pieces out of
the manure, but now they seem to be eating quite a bit of the green
matter that passes through the calves.  This has worked out great as we
no longer have the mess of manure piles to step around and in, and it's
alot better for fly and parasite control.

My only concern with this system is that we plan to start eating some of
the ducks soon, and I'm a bit concerned about how this diet might affect
the flavor of the birds.  I may find that I need to separate them from
the manure for a period before butchering them.

Perhaps you would have more luck feeding the grain to your bovines rather
than scattering it on the ground.  Whole grains tend to make the trip
through the GI system better, but I am finding cracked corn also works
fine.  Good luck.

Dan Settles