STOCK
The general management principles with regard to livestock must be centred around utilising a diverse range of species, both to maximise the foodstuffs available from pasture, and to alleviate the effects on animal and plant health caused by mono-species husbandry.
Each type of animal grazes in a different way, and subsequently makes use of different parts of the sward due to tendencies towards nibbling, browsing or scratching. Benefits can be seen in letting the more discerning animals precede the less fussy. This may consist of in-milk cattle, perhaps with calves at hoof, followed by sheep which crop close (but only in preferred areas), then beef animals (which will tend to clear all those areas left by earlier grazers), if poultry can then be moved systematically, or be given range across the land they can spread the various manures and condition the pasture with their scratching, whilst gaining much nutrition from the young emergent regrowth (encouraging much tillering), and the insect life that the manure has encouraged.
Such comprehensive grazing of grass / clover swards provides the optimum stimulus for nitrogen release by the clovers as well as even and tender regrowth, the mixture of manure and the harrowing effect of the poultry also encourages speedy recovery during rest periods, maintaining the longevity of the swards species diversity, and allows rapid rotation of the maximum head of stock per hectare.
Pest and disease problems are subsequently minimised due to the ingestion of potentially harmful bacteria by the following of unrelated species, leaving clean pasture by the time the animals revisit any given area, leading to lower risks of worms, husk or mites, in either the cattle or sheep populations, or fowl paralysis in poultry flocks.
Breeding sows who provide the pork fattening population can also be included in a grazing rotation, but fullest use is often reserved for areas under vegetable production where their cleaning capabilities are most useful.
Such a regime allows maximum overlap of numbers on the same land therefore achieving a significantly higher stocking (Henderson 1948), rather than under the set stocking patterns common in specialised enterprises (see appendix…..).
Design and requirements for housing stock and fodder are best addressed by drawing on the principle of providing cost effective as opposed to high investment solutions. The use of locally available materials and the use of modular or extendable designs for use with differing size of holding, or numbers of stock.
Overall this approach attempts to minimise risks and allow the flexibility that the farmer needs to remain competitive as both prices and markets change.