Moving Toward Permaculture

We have begun getting serious about forage production for 2014. We will be using more forest foraging this spring than we ever have. We have nearly 20 acres of mixed forest that will be put in heavy use this spring. Rotational grazing is going to be an important part of our feeding scheme. I have begun putting in permanent fences to make smaller pastures. The electric pasture fencing might work well for everyone else but has done me little good. Deer and foals run through electric fence too often to make it reliable.

We will continue wind row composting in the two main sacrifice lots. At the moment the soil is too wet to make wind rows but as soon as a tractor can easily handle the soil moisture we will get going again. In early spring we will deeply plow the sacrifice areas to combat the soil compaction that occurs over the years. This should result in much better rain water penetration of the soil, reducing run off, and making it easier to develop wind rows in the summer.

I have greatly reduced my use of ivermectin over the past two years. The result is an explosion of dung beetles in the sandier soils in the pasture. Ivermectin kills dung beetles. These beetles bury manure several inches below ground. They leave large holes (thumb sized) in the soil that aid in aeration of the soil. The beetles are currently burying much more than half of the manure produced in the sandy pastures.

We will deal with an erosion problem in pasture one by building a large "pasture pond" to create an artificial wet land about 100 ft by 50 ft. It will be fenced to keep the horses out of it and we will plant wetland plants (cattails, willows, etc) to stabilize the area and to reduce nutrient runoff. Over the past five years I have used piles of old hay twine to create baffles in the erosion ruts as they are forming. The result has been spectacular. The rutting has been over seeded with clover and the erosion has been completely halted.

The most significant difference in our approach will be that the pastures will be mowed after a herd is rotated out of it. Doing so will take care of the weeds without using herbicide. Wild flowers and weeds will be encouraged as filter strips near the ditch and small swamp outside the pastures. Baby hogs will continue to run free in the cold season and will continue to root up weeds and open patches of soil for reseeding.

I hope to be able to plant a great deal of crab grass this year. The seed is expensive and hard to find. It makes the best warm season forage we can grow for horses around here.

We will likely obtain a cow this year and more goats. This will increase the viability of our pastures.

But even if we do everything perfectly, we can't make it rain. Drought renders all of the planting nearly worth less.

But there will be future years and droughts do not last forever.