Hi Tom >Hi Keith and all, > >I was wondering how the work on using poultry for sustainable >gardening/farming was going.
It's a micro-ley farming system, rotational grazing on very little land, using poultry. There's a description here: http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg62619.html Re: [Biofuel] More Gardening News - micro ley farming Keith Addison Fri, 12 May 2006 That was more than a year ago. We've had really good results, more than we expected. It needs an update, but that'll take a little time, there's quite a lot to say, and a lot of new material to upload, it'll make a new section at the website. >I am planning to begin stocking a few Muscovy ducks this spring. I >saw Muscovies on the website. Do you provide housing or supplimental >feeds? Yes. Others don't, and just let them forage, they'll find their own places to shelter. That's possible where there aren't any predators. Extra feed is useful for them. Three ducks are nesting on eggs right now, for instance. Muscovies need more feed in winter (not so many insects around) and seem to eat more greens in winter too. Most/all supplementary feed can be produced on-farm. >Do they just forage on their own. Yes. >I have some young mulberry trees that I hope might feed them in a few years. Would you be satisfied with a diet of mulberries? Muscovies are ace foragers, omnivores. They'll eat grass and clover and so on, but they don't really graze that much on pastures, it's more the insects they're interested in. (But they need both.) Chickens are both grazers and foragers, you can raise them on pasture but they're destructive so you have to move them often. Geese are mainly grazers, very little foraging. They prefer different plants to the chickens - well, the same plants mostly, but geese eat more of the grasses, chickens eat more of the clovers (or something like that). The two complement each other well, so you alternate them around the fields - less fallow, more manuring, better production, stronger pastures. This system is faster and more robust than I expected it to be. The "fields" here are small, 40, 60, 80 sq metres (the total is 700 sq metres, including two vegetables terraces (no birds allowed)). You can rotate them quickly this way, almost like you would with raised growing beds and vegetables. The soil improves rapidly, you're quickly growing quality crops. Very flexible, easy to adapt, scaleable up or down. The Muscovies fit in more or less anywhere you like, they're about the most useful bird you can have. But I don't think I'd base grass rotations only on Muscovies, since you asked about using poultry for sustainable gardening/farming. http://journeytoforever.org/farm_poultry.html Poultry for small farmers: Journey to Forever Muscovy ducks - First choice for small farms... For the producer they're cheap and troublefree: Muscovies more or less produce themselves. They're self-dependent, better foragers than other ducks, they grow fast and they seldom get sick." Etc. >I´m trying to integrate some permaculture/ That seems to be just a word now, usually means whatever people want it to mean. >perenial shrub system with animals. Uruguay´s weather has become >very unpredictable. It seems the speeding up of the water cycle is >giving us alternating floods with drought. Any ideas or insights? Bare mountaintops and slopes, or lots of trees on them? Best Keith >Tom Irwin > > >From: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Time is running out to Save Raw Almonds! >Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:16:30 +0900 > >Hi Dawie <snip> _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
