Controlled Animal Impact: Part One

I used to manage a 200 acre demonstration farm owned by a non-profit.  As the land manager, I decided to try using goat grazing to clean-up some of the overgrown and fallow areas of the farm.  This was a former crop field that had filled in with mustard, thistles, annual grasses, and poison hemlock.  It did not look nice, appeared to be a fire hazard, and contained a lot of partially buried trash that we wanted to remove.  So I hired our local goat grazing outfit (Sycamore Farms) who brought in roughly 100 Boer goats to tackle some of the ugliest areas.

This is the same area a couple months later after the goats removed the standing dead plant matter, ate the seed heads, and fertilized the poor soils (those pine trees on the right were already dead, you just can't see them in the first photo).  After several successions of goat grazing, and more recently, pig tillage, this area was removed of a truckload of trash, and the weed pressure has dropped significantly.  Hey, who said well managed grazing can't help restore the earth?

The enthusiastic thumbs up says it all in this photo.  The spindly, short, light green grass on the right did not have any chicken grazing and the thick, tall, and dark green grass on the left had open-bottom broiler pens on it.  We would move the pens each day so that the manure would never build up too much in one place.   Although this land is leased, we are seeing and capitalizing on the benefits of this managed grazing  immediately with gains in our hay production, improved organic matter, water-holding capacity, earthworm populations, and faster gaining animals.  Additionally, because we rest areas after grazing, our disease and parasite pressure in our animals is negligible.

Here is a close up of what my farmer hubby got so excited about.  Again, the animals (in this case poultry) grazed on the left, nothing on the right.

I will talk more in my next post about some of the scientific studies on the benefits of animal grazing for things such as fire prevention, increasing soil organic matter and carbon sequestration, weed control, and more.  My third part in this series will cover the key components of a good rotational grazing system.  If any of you readers have personal stories and experiences using animals to manage land or restore habitats, I would love to hear from you. 

Comments

[Walter Jeffries]

This is essentially the original reason we began raising livestock - we needed manure and brush control. Turned out we were good at it and that developed into our pastured pig farm where we also raise sheep, goats, chickens and geese all co-grazing together on pasture. The pastures have gone from poor, acidic New England mountain soil to rich soil and lush growth. The transformation is amazing - all without any bought fertilizers and just one liming about twelve years ago. Another liming is on my to-do list.

[Luane Todd]

Hello, Rebecca,

I found your site by way of Grist and I thought I would see if I can make this work...I'm not very adept at using the different technologies but I'm working on this.

I did 12 years of very intensive cattle, then sheep and goat grazing in NW Arkansas and had a remarkable experience with what you can do with marginal land using the 'mob' grazing techniques for very short grazing periods. If this post works I will share as much information as you wish to hear about what I did and the people I learned from. This is a remarkable restoration and mitigation tool that I think should be widely promoted for a multitude of reasons.

I look forward to working with and learning from you.

[Woody Deryckx]

Wonderful pictures showing the power of chicken grazing. It is important to note that there is a huge influx of fertility from the chicken feed (grain, soybean meal, mineral supplements, etc) fed to growing poultry in movable pens. Even with twice a day moves, my chicken pens leave behind a heavy application of manure the vast majority of which is derived from feed. It's a good idea to note how many pounds of feed go into the penned flock between chicken tractor moves - divided by the number of square feet of the pen.
This is an important point overlooked by Michael Pollan in his account of Joel Salatin's farming system where there has to be a substantial influx of fertility in the form of chicken feed for those broilers.

In our row crop system, we're trying to use movable pen poultry feeding as a way to provide fertility input for the rest of the rotation. Clover undersown between rows of vegetable crops eventually serve as poultry pasture.
Thanks, for the great ideas, Honest Meat folks... best wishes.
woody

[HeatherHillary]

Great job! My friend and her family have an amazing farm in Oregon, and this is her blog, I think you might like it. I have personally seen aerial photos of their farm, where you can clearly see where their poultry tractors and cattle have grazed (green, not weedy).

http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/

[Jean]

Morris Beef used to have a great aerial photo showing the difference between land they had been grazing (lush and green) and land they hadn't (brownish sparse vegetation). I didn't see it on their website last time I looked.

[mare]

Fascinating! I want to read more!