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Livestock & Restoration Agriculture - Coggle Diagram
Livestock & Restoration Agriculture
Introduction
An ecological niche is a postition or role taken by an organism within it's ecological community p.( 114)
Design and order to fill niches
Niches are defined by resources in a praticular location or time
Time niches are hard to detect
Restoration agriculture
Perennialism is restored
Produces stable foods and medicines while increases the number of niches for animals
Animal polycuture
Joel Saliton
Closed loop system
Animals are needed for resotoration agriculture
Aniamls add nutrients to the soil to increase fertility, income. pest control, food, clothing and much more!
Stocking rates
Over stocking
leads to overgrazing
Harms pasutre health therefore animal health
Land degradation
Desertification
less carbon sequestration
Under stocking
Can lead to overgrazing as well
Poor mamagement practices
Animals will eat most desirable plants until depleted
Diversity needed so undesirable plants are needed as well
Cattle
Simpliest leader-follower system with only cattle
Frist bite theory= they take the first top bite and move on from the pasture, the most nutrious parts
Young calves first, them lactating cows, then dry cows, based on nutrients needs
Grazing system matches pasture growth
An ideal grazing system would be a mob-stocked leader-follower system starting with cattle
Hogs
Follow the cattle
Eat a fair amount of forage but prefer to root through the ground to at grubs
Rooting allows a tillage system with animals
Recommend tamworth and berkshire
Use a nose ring to prevent uprooting to teach grazing
2 pigs/cow
Pigs can be used as a clean up tool
Turkeys
Follow after pigs
2 turkeys/pig
Eat insects an seeds left behind in dung
Introduce mineral amendements in a low cost manner
Natural grit that re-feeds the pasture
Sheep
Graze on the first plants to emerge after the rest go through, feed on many undisered plants
Broad leaf eaters
Natural weed supresor
Chickens
Follow after sheep
Can be challenging in a leader follower system
Help spread manure from the animals before them in search of seeds
Mobile chicken coop
Rule of thumb for numbers is not really possible
Problems
Goats
Provide diverse uses and income
Can eat and thrive off of almost anything good/bad
Hard to manage in restoration agriculutre for over grazing
Not recommended until system is mature
Need to protect none pasture ground as they are escape artists
Need really good fences and management
Mineral toxicity
Need to carefully monitor supplemental feeding of trace elements and minerals
Supplements needed for one animals can be toxic to another, ex: Copper for sheep or too much salt for cows
Soil testing and forest testing is important
Parasites/diseases
Sheep and goats share the same parasites as do pigs and chickens
Mitgate parasties by understanding their life cycles
Problems can be eliminated through diverse pastures
Do not combine animals with similar parasites and diseases
Species breaks betweeen susceptiable species needed
Take care of animals to reduce stress and keep areas clean
Winter housing for seperate animals needed
Healthy pasutres with long periods for recovery are needed for healthy livestock
Higher livestock production
Higher production in a leader follower-system
Due to increase in total diversity and site diversity leads to an increase in total pasture production
Economic diversification
By diversifying animals production, price fluctuations are minimal
Raising only one livetsock leaves you at risk for the one market
Builds economic resiliency
Personal Connections:
Devin: Agreed with everything in the text except for Ashley's farm where his beef cows are loose housed on pasture and he said 3 cows were too much for 13 acres, but really it was just poor management
Rocco: A Polyculture leader-follow grazing system seems very efficient and beneficial, but as someone who would like to produce for subsistence it seems too labour intensive.
Josh: Thought that the management techniques were clever, however, the cost of maintaining and purchasing everything needed to deal with the livestock would be extremely costly in order to start.