permaculture

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

> if you let them free
> range they will eat the best stuff and eventually the bad stuff they have 
> left
> will take over and your pasture will suck.

Along with intensive rotational grazing, it can be useful to do polyculture
grazing instead of monoculture grazing.  Different critters eat (at least
somewhat) different types of plants (goats vs. horses vs. sheep vs. cattle vs.
ducks vs. chickens vs. geese etc. etc.).  A mix of grazing species will also
help alleviate the "they only eat all the good stuff" problem.

Over a couple years now I've seen, at infrequent intervals, the pasture of
someone who has a horse, and more recently two horses, and no other grazers. 
The horses are free to roam over several acres when they're out of their
corral - not managed or rotated - and even in a season or two the pasture
clearly shows consequences of just them getting to eat only the best of what
they like best.


John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
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john@eco-living.net
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