permaculture

[Nathan Ayers <ayers.nathan@gmail.com>]

Darren Doherty and Mark shepherd. Darren's website and Marks new book are 
very current examples of regenerative agro forestry with rotational grazing. 



Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 2, 2013, at 9:35 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:

> I have never heard this suggested before but it is a very good concept:
> herds of livestock, i.e. cattle, sheep, goats, even pigs
> being pastured and grass fed in a rotational fashion on lands owned by many
> people who would benefit from 1) keeping unwanted plant crops (weeds)
> or cover crops consumed by these animals 2) soil fertilization from the
> manure from these animals. It would seen that this would be an easy thing
> to do.
> Either herd the animals together and walk them to a new pasture or
> transport them with a trailer (goats might require this, maybe sheep and
> cattle too).
> The landowners providing rotation pasturing could also help somewhat in
> managing the herds that are on their land at the time. No reason not to
> mild those that
> have been freshened and that's where the perk comes in for the landowner.
> Schedule grazing for milk providers on land where the owners want the milk.
> Maybe
> some of the livestock owners are not dairymen but the pasture land
> providers would like to be but don;t want to have to own a herd; i.e. part
> time dairymen;
> they have milk for cheese when the animals are available for milking but
> not necessarily year round. Meat animals could be harvested when culls are
> available;
> meat could be shared or sold to benefit everyone involved in the rotational
> grazing scheme, livestock owners and non-livestock-owning land owners.
> Parcel out
> each herd on as many parcels of land as necessary to avoid overgrazing and
> soil compaction, i.e. size the hear to the carrying capacity of the
> pasture.
> 
> This sounds like an amazing win-win plan. I am no expert on this while many
> others in this list are.
> 
> LL
> 
> On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Graham Unangst-Rufenacht <
> graham.rufenacht@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Folks,
>> 
>> I'm looking for some comprehensive, informative, and concise resources
>> about regenerative grazing and agroforestry.  I am working gathering
>> interested parties and am initiating a community managed / owned herd and
>> agroforestry project in central Vermont.  I am specifically looking for
>> materials to bring to Town Meeting which I can have available for folks to
>> read and / or bring home with them - i'm looking for readings, systems
>> designs sketches, photographs and documentation, etc. - things that will be
>> both inspiring and informative that I can set up at a table and use to
>> effectively get people engaged in considering a new positive potential for
>> themselves, the land, their relationship with the land, and the future of
>> the community.
>> 
>> This is a community with a rich agricultural history, but cattle in
>> particular are currently associated with erosion and run-off, ground water
>> contamination, manure pits, large dairy operations, large corn
>> monocultures, and closely cropped and poorly maintained pastures.  The
>> human habitation pattern is such that there are many 5-25 acre properties
>> of mixed forest and old field being annually maintained with haying or
>> brush-hogging (mechanically maintained).  This habitation pattern (as well
>> as numerous old logging roads, barns, the VAST - vermont association of
>> snow travelers - trails, dirt roads, etc) lends itself well to a community
>> owned herd that could migrate through the neighborhood, biologically
>> maintaining these landscapes, over the course of the grazing season.  Even
>> starting small, beginning to encourage a more participatory and lineage
>> based relationship between people and the communities and places they live,
>> beginning to generate more topsoil, implementing agroforestry designs to
>> diversify yields over time, showing that its possible and beautiful and
>> productive - there is excellent potential for shared costs and benefits
>> reaching well beyond individuals to other organizations such as the schools
>> in town.
>> 
>> I don't need to preach to the choir - thanks for the advice and resource
>> suggestions!
>> 
>> Graham Unangst-Rufenacht
>> __________________________
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