Pasture Management: The Cluck-N-Oink Crew
Matt has been experimenting with rotational methods that enhance the health of our pastures but that reduce our labor load in moving the critters regularly. We move our chickens and pigs very frequently and decided to try a shared fence set-up during the cool months when wallowing isn’t necessary for the pigs.
The strategy is to use a shared net set-up and only have to set up one new pen for each move. The following groups then use the previously set-up net paddock and reduce the amount of fence moving significantly. It also enables us to move the groups more often because less of our labor is spent moving overall. What we get is a nice, tidy, lightly tilled field ready for spring sunshine to make the seeds in the soil sprout. Chicken manure is especially helpful to jump-start a barren pasture to a-growing.
So far it’s working very well. These groups move together every 2-3 days. This allows minimal parasite build-up, access to fresh pasture constantly, and good manure distribution across the farm. Right now the Cluck-N-Oink crew is fertilizing our north pasture, the one most damaged by overgrazing prior to our arrival. That field was pretty representative of most old cow pastures in East Texas–yielding poor, very slow growth, little ground cover, and hungry cows.
We hope to see a dramatic improvement in grass growth when spring arrives! Pigs and chickens work wonders on pasture to jump-start microbial activity, clean up dead growth, and stir up the seed bed exposing viable forage seed to moisture and sunlight. In a few years we will probably not even be able to see the ground anymore because the sod will thicken and protect it!
Faraway view of the Cluck-N-Oink crew. Two groups of pigs follow one group of chickens in our current set-up.
You can see the contrast in ungrazed ground. The grazed ground gets a nice, even light tillage to stir up the soil and seed bed, aerate the microbes, and get rid of dead overgrowth. No diesel required!
A little nap time, a little play time, and a little eating time.
Coming over to say hello
The Boar. Just woke up from a late afternoon nap.
This momma pig is getting a good ear-scratching on her shade hut.
A skittish Old English Game rooster apparently flew the coop and is looking for a way back in.
A lovely Ameraucauna rooster eyeing the photographer.
A pretty buff Orpington laying in the boxes of the old egg-mobile.
Free-choice access to a yummy soy-free, non-genetically-modified feed.
One of the young Black Sex Link roosters sprucing himself up for the ladies.
Somebody didn’t quite make it into the nest box. Makes an interesting centerpiece while this hen is at work.
Peeking out while at work.
This hen is a young Black Sex Link.
This box even has a window!
Chickens seem to prefer hay over wood chips in their nest boxes.
A pretty little clutch of eggs.
Some girls ready to head back out to pasture after laying the day’s egg. Lady is their guardian and takes excellent care of them.
Slatted floors allow droppings to fall directly onto pasture. Look out below!
The chicken escalator.
Chickens a-scratching on a lovely February afternoon.
It seems the 13-year mark of small business is when all your equipment decides to break down, especially if most of it was already almost a decade old when you started (but of course we didn’t own much “new” stuff. We like our equipment already “broken in,” ha!). We’ve had to do a boat-load of repairs this year. Matt says we can start calling him Jack, as in Jack of… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
I have been reading your newsletter for a long time and you never cease to amaze me. You do a fantastic job, not only in the work you do but in interfacing with the not too enlightened those of us out here hoping to benefit from it. I am always interested in what you’re doing and hope to be able to take a tour when the weather improves. (It will eventually improve won’t it?) Thank you for all you do. You are a perfect example of God using what some would view as unfortunate circumstances to benefit not only yourselves but others as well. Keep up the good work! Hope to see you soon.
Katherine Horton
As I told you Saturday , I love your pictures, excellent befitting
Comments. They remind me of my own life on the beautiful farm
That I miss so much. It is tough hard work but is the
Best life in the world. I feel tha I already know you
And have known you a long time. I pray Gods protection
And blessings on your family and farm as He
Meant it to be. Thank you so much for what you are doing
And keep the wonderful pics coming
I am so enjoying the bounty of your labor!!