permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Apologies for cross-posting.
Thought this might of interest to some of you. Don't know how far it has
progressed (since 3/02) but I'd day it's definitely worth keeping an eye
on. Very pc in its approach.

Cheers,
Ute

http://www.organic.aber.ac.uk/library/agroforestry%20system%20for%20chicken%20production.htm

>        Development of an agroforestry system for chicken
>        production
> 
>         Abstract  Because conventional production of chickens has
>                   gone further than any other animal production
>                   system towards complete control of the animal’s
>                   brief lives, development of effective
>                   silvo-poultry systems seems particularly
>                   necessary for these essentially woodland birds.
>                   The objective is to develop a production system
>                   that closely matches the physiological and
>                   behavioural needs of the animals being reared.
>                   For the example of chickens, this means trying
>                   to mimic a woodland/forest-clearing
>                   environment. By providing a wide range of
>                   trees, shrubs and herbs, it should be possible
>                   to provide shelter, nutrition and medicinal
>                   benefits for the birds. At the same time, the
>                   system needs to fulfil other functions in terms
>                   of biodiversity and community assets for the
>                   farm, together with profitable organic chicken
>                   production.
>         Keywords: poultry; agroforestry; production systems
>         Authors   Lois Philipps; Cindy Engel; Martin Wolfe
>         Date:     March 2002
>         Format:   PDF (requires Adobe Acrobat)
> 
>        From: Powell et al. (eds), UK Organic Research 2002:
>        Proceedings of the COR Conference, 26-28th March 2002,
>        Aberystwyth, pp. 257-258.
>