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Livestock & Restoration Agriculture, Andreia Dhooge, Michael Carrier,…

- - - - resources are defined as water, food, shelter reproduction sites
    - - whether it be
        
        bare black dirt
        
        grassland
        
        shrubland
        
        early or late successional forest
    - - ex: chestnut, apple, hazelnut, raspberry, currant, grape, fungi
      - some are high, low, sun loving, shade-tolerant, self-supporting, vining etc..
      - requires support if others
      - ex: black occupy either overstay or canopy layer
  - - - dynamic stability and ecological change through time
      - process of creating a viable ecological system based on natural patterns and relationships that is perennial
        
        for humans it produces
        
        staple foods
        
        fuels
        
        medicines
        
        fibers
      - provides different niches for animals both wild and domestic
      - can be achieved with a vegan/vegetarian diet
        
        by purchasing perennial stable food crops a vegan can economically incentivize the planting of restoration agriculture systems
      - not possible without enlisting the aid of countless animals
      - perennials is restored
      - multitude of ecological niches re created which animals can and do colonize
      - animal polyculture in restoration agriculture
        
        exercises in creating carefully designed leader-follower, mob-stocked, silvopasture grazing syst3em
        
        leader follower grazing systems
        
        are those where one animal type is let into a paddock first, once it is done in that paddock it is transferred to another paddock, and the next animal comes into the first paddock
        
        able to out-produce other grazing systems for total animal weight gain because each animal is allowed to eat its optimal food first
        
        silvopasture
        
        intentional combining of both livestock production and woody plants
        
        intentional and intensive management of both the forage system and the woody crop
        
        intensively managing an open-canopy tree and forage system
        
        a good restoration agriculture system, as it has a goal of being the optimal harvest of solar energy per are while actually improving site conditions
        
        Best one is seen in Serengeti
        
        herds of grazing animals are food for predators
        
        pressure from predators cause the grazing prey animals to form tight groupings, to graze fairly quickly on only their preferred foods, then move on water and greener pastures
- - - - come after the cattle
      - plowing behaviour
        
        spread nutrients from cattle manure, giving the soil equal and spreader fertility (connection)
      - sanitize the area and perform cleanup behind cattle
      - perform soil disturbance
        
        Can be useful to plant new crops
        
        They can turn the ground to expose more soil for better seed-to-soil contact
        
        Can destroy crops if allowed to completely unroot plants
        
        Nose rings can help because they prevent the hogs from digging and plowing too deep
        
        Forage quality is essential to the support of many different species, so hogs should not be allowed to uproot all the root system
        
        Pig to cow ratio
        
        No more than 2 pigs or less per adult cow
        
        Allows pasture to meet nutritional requirements
    - - Will eat some of the leftover forage
      - But MOSTLY insects, and seeds
      - Provide excellent fertility to pasture
      - Low-cost meat source
      - Hog to turkey ratio
        
        2 turkeys per hog
      - Low maintenance if they are able to forage well
        
        Heritage breeds are the best in terms of foraging because they have the skill in the genetics (connection from AGR172 class)
      - Allows pasture to rest until next phase of species' rotation
    - - Simple leader-follower system
      - Most researched
      - 1) Calves graze before mature cattle (higher nutrient needs)
        
        Highest nutrient needs
        
        "First bites" are better adapted to smaller size of calves
      - 2) Lactating cows come after the calves
        
        High nutrient demand
        
        Cows with calves (connection)
        
        Gestating cows (connection)
      - 3) Dry cattle come last
        
        Heifers (connection)
        
        Beef cattle (connection)
        
        Gestating cows 1-2 months prior to calving (connection)
      - Systems follows the pasture's growth cycle and is adapted to livestock's needs
      - Perform minimal soil disturbance with their hooves which helps grass seed to have good contact with soil and germinates (personal connection)
      - Excellent source of manure fertility
    - - waterfowl
      - NOT significant savanna animals
      - Could follow turkeys
      - Contained through same
        fencing for pigs and turkeys
      - Serve as a burglar alarm
    - - Wonderful animal
      - Produce high-quality meat and dairy products
        on the coarsest, most degraded forage.
        
        Raspberry bushes
        
        Roses
        
        Poison ivy,
        
        Undesirable Plants
        
        Honeysuckle
        
        Multiflora roses
        
        Autumn olive.
        
        Can almost eat anything
        
        Greatest strength
        
        Greatest Curse
      - Produce surplus milk
      - A kid or two yearly
      - BEWARE
        
        They will escape
        
        will jump over or go through
        any normal electric fence
        
        Goats are recommended for
        more experienced agriculture farmer
        
        Do not recommend goats in a restoration agriculture system
        until that system is quite mature — 15 years old or more.
      - Compare Cattle to Goats
        
        Cattle require high-quality pasture and
        produce high-quality food
        
        Historically the Status symbol
        
        When pasture degrade,
        not as much cattle can be supported
        
        When pasture degrade,
        not as much cattle can be supported
        
        Then farmers can
        only sustain goats
    - - Chickens
        
        Housing Chickens
        
        permanent paddocks
        
        Quite expensive.
        
        Daily work with them is a nuissance
        
        Open-bottomed, portable
        chicken pens
        
        They scratch
        up any remaining manure
        after the cattle, hogs, and turkeys
        
        minimal manure left-over
        
        One of the simplest
        animals to raise
        
        Meat Birds
        
        Egg Layers
        
        4acres of small grain and legumes
        = feed 4,000 meat birds.
        
        They come in after
        sheep
      - Cattle, hogs, turkeys will clear out the majority, including the most nutritious parts of the pasture
      - Once clear, the plants that rebound
        are the least desired of
        the cattle, hogs, and turkeys
        
        Eat Invasives: such as spotted knapweed and leafy spurge.
        
        Eat dandelions, burdock, cow parsnips and thistles.
      - What Sheep eat in a pasture
        
        these weeds will become less and less prevalent in the pasture thereby providing weed control as a side benefit of the grazing system,
- - - - non-animal eating diet is based on annual crops, and in actuality kills animals
- - - - Another example could be mineral supplements such as copper being necessary for cattle but toxic for sheep.
- - - - Multispecies grazing allows the grazier to have fewer animals, reducing individual anonymity.