[permaculture-oceania] THEME: Farming|gardening - article on animal tractors

[Russ Grayson]

The following article appeared in the argoforesty journal, 'The Overstorey',
October 2006.

Good to look at the 'References' citations at the end of the article and
know Permaculture is having an influence.


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INTRODUCTION

When planned and managed properly, animals can be key components in
sustainable farming systems, enhancing important cycles of nature such
as nutrient cycling and balancing of insect populations. A well-designed
system with animals can also greatly reduce the human labor required to
care for the animals and to prepare and maintain crop areas.

Animal tractor systems are a sustainable, cost-effective, and humane way
to integrate animals into an agricultural system. Although the term
"tractor" can be confusing, animal tractor systems do not involve draft
animals.

Animal tractors are shelter-pen systems where animals such as chickens,
turkeys, geese, ducks, pigs, or goats become integral parts of
agricultural environments. In animal tractor systems, the animals are
managed for productivity of eggs, milk, or meat. At the same time, the
scratching, pecking, tilling, and manure spreading behavior of animals
is used to prepare, clean, or maintain planting areas.

In this issue of The Overstory, special guest author Andy Lee shares his
extensive personal experience working with animals including chickens,
pigs, turkeys, and goats in effective animal tractor systems. He
describes animal tractors for many purposes, including market garden
operations, orchard settings, pond preparation, land clearing, and
pasture improvement/diversification.


ANIMAL TRACTORS

The key to creating an effective animal tractor system is to integrate
the needs, behaviors, and products of the animals with the farm system
as a whole. An animal tractor locates animals where its food is
abundant, where the animal enjoys relative freedom, and where the
natural behaviors of the animal are put to best use. By having an animal
in the right location, the need to be fed, watered, and cared for by
humans is minimized.

Animal tractors bring into harmony the relationships between farmers,
the agroecosystem, and animals. The animal provides a handy tillage tool
with its continual scratching, pecking, or rooting behavior. It becomes
a biomass recycler, consuming excess weeds, grasses, insects, etc. The
manure returns to the earth as fertility for the crops.


ORCHARD MAINTENANCE

Animal tractor systems can be very effective for ground cover
maintenance, and work well with orchard or tree crops. In an orchard
animal tractor system, the animals are rotated through the orchard,
either in movable pens or in a series of fixed paddocks. When at the
proper density, the animals clean the area between and under the trees
of grasses, weeds, and weed seeds, scavenge wastes and windfall fruits,
and eat insects and their larvae. At the same time, the animals add
their manure to help fertilize the crops. When the pen area has been
cleared and fertilized by the animals, they are moved on to the next
section of orchard.

With the appropriate combination of animals and crop trees, this system
has been effective with chickens, guinea fowl, turkey, pheasant, quail,
sheep, and pigs. On a healthy mixed diet from the orchard, animals tend
to have less disease problems.

Lighter animals such as chickens or other poultry can be rotated
permanently through an orchard system. More intensive animal tractor
systems, for example with pigs, can be very useful in orchard
establishment as well as for seasonal maintenance. The system can be
further adapted to be more productive by mixing tree species that
provide additional food for the animals; for example papaya, banana, and
inga (ice cream bean).


MARKET GARDENS

Poultry such as chickens and turkeys are excellent for preparing and
fertilizing garden areas. In such systems, the poultry are confined to
an area in sufficient density to remove virtually all green matter,
fallen fruit, insects, etc. When an area is grazed clean, the animals
are moved to a fresh area.

In our case, we use turkeys to fertilize and prepare our market gardens.
At the end of each garden season in the Fall we herd turkeys into our
enclosed gardens to graze. They eat crop residue and weeds right down to
bare ground in no time. Then we harvest the turkeys for the holidays and
unroll round bales of hay to mulch the gardens for the winter. The
following spring we transplant our garden crops right into the mulch.

To establish a new garden site we use a tractor-powered spading machine
to work up the plot. In following years we rely solely upon the turkeys
for clean up and fertilizing, and the mulch for soil stability and weed
control. Underneath the mulch the soil stays wonderfully loose, sopping
up rain and providing a great habitat for soil dwellers and plant roots.
Our yields are always well above national averages, and our soil gets
richer year by year.

Portable tractor systems are also very effective with chickens. For
household production, 120 sq. foot (11 sq. meter) pasture pens are just
fine for up to 30 layers or 80 broilers. On a commercial scale, such
small pens are too costly and labor intensive for the number of birds
each can house. We use a portable ranging system, where we house the
birds at night and enclose them in a 1700 sq. foot (160 sq. meter) area
during the day inside a portable electric netting. This way we can
double or even triple the number of birds per shelter, and still be able
to move them easily on a daily or weekly basis.


PREPARING PASTURE

Removing deep rooted woody weeds requires the power of a pig tractor. A
pig tractor works much the same as poultry tractors. Instead of
scratching, it is the rooting behavior of the pigs which is used. Pig
tractors can be used to prepare land for permanent tree crops or rotated
seasonally to clean up crop wastes or fallen fruits.

My father used pigs to root out a pasture in a cut over wood lot on our
farm in Southwest Missouri. To encourage the pigs to root at the stumps,
he dug holes around the roots of oak and hickory and filled them with
shell corn. He then turned in the hogs.

In a few months the stumps were rooted out and the ground was completely
churned up. After taking out the stumps, the bare ground was disc
harrowed and planted to permanent pasture with scattered trees. The
whole process took about a year, but the results were excellent. I
returned to my father's farm forty years later, and found the pasture is
still thriving, with cattle grazing amongst the trees that offer shelter
and shade.


POND PREPARATION

Another application for the pig tractor is in pond preparation. In this
case the wallowing and rooting behavior of the pigs, along with their
manure and trampled crop residue combine to make a watertight pond
bottom.

In my family's case, we have had very good results turning boggy garden
areas into ponds. First, we turn feeder pigs into the garden and let
them eat crop residue and weeds. The pigs love to wallow and root in the
boggy areas. After the area is thoroughly worked over by the pigs, we
use a grader to scoop out the pond. We then return the pigs to wallow
some more.

The combination of compaction and gleying (similar to gluing) of manure
and plant residue creates a perfect pond bottom that holds water for
years. Any time the pond starts to leak, we'd just put a pig or two in
there for a few days. Ponds usually leak at the water level, and that's
where the pigs do the most good. Half in and half out of the water they
lay there for hours just slicking the pond side to a impermeable
surface, fixing leaks we can't see.


PASTURE IMPROVEMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION

Animal tractors can be used very effectively to revitalize and diversify
pasture. Using pig and chicken tractors in mobile enclosures can greatly
enhance the pasture.

We use beef cattle followed by a chicken tractor to improve our pasture.
We only raise a few cattle inside portable electric sheep netting (7000
sq. ft or 650 sq meters). We stock the enclosures so that the cattle
daily chew the grass down low enough for the chickens to graze on it.
The chickens follow the beef by a week. The time between gives the
manure pats time to dry out, for seeds to germinate, and for parasites
to become larvae. The chickens scratch the cow pats completely apart,
spreading the fertility of the cow pat over a much larger area and
eliminating the large cow-pats found in conventionally grazed fields. At
the same time, the chickens sanitize the pasture by eating weed seeds
and grain that passed through the cows, and eating the parasite larvae.
This breaks up the parasite cycle and makes it safe to graze the cattle
across the field in controlled rotations without concern for reinfecting
them with stomach parasites.

We also use pig tractors in our permanent pasture. Each tractor occupies
130 sq. feet (12 sq. meters), and is roofed and enclosed on one end with
sheet metal roofing to shelter the pigs. The pig tractor is on wheels so
we can move it easily each morning when we do chores. Leaving the pigs
at any one place for just one day churns up a small area of pasture. As
soon as we move the pig tractor to its next spot we throw grass and
clover seed on the rooted up area to diversify the pasture vegetation.


LAND PREPARATION

Various animals can be used to prepare land, depending on the condition
of the vegetation. For lightly vegetated land prone to erosion, a
movable poultry tractor works well to quickly remove the tops of weeds
and lay down a light coat of manure, in preparation for planting
permanent ground covers such as grass, legumes or other protective
plants.

Where vegetation is too rough for poultry, pigs, goats or cattle can be
used to prepare land for production. For example, on parts of our land
crowded with red cedar and black locust sprouts, Virginia creeper,
honeysuckle and multi-flora rose, we use goats to clean up the
vegetation (Boar meat goats). We use the goats to prepare the land ahead
of the chickens, again relying on the poultry to spread the manure and
break up parasite cycles.


CONCLUSION

Here at Good Earth Farm in Central Virginia, USA, our livestock and
poultry are reclaiming a 40-acre Shenandoah Valley farm. The results we
are seeing are gratifying, especially knowing that we have not spent any
money on fertilizer, and in all likelihood we'll never have to, as long
as we keep rotating the animals to where they are needed.

The livestock and poultry are also our cash income, to pay for the land
and house, and to keep us clothed. Without them we would both have to
work off the farm to make ends meet. Instead, we live the kind of life
we have always dreamed about, and look forward to sharing our knowledge
with others who are ready to learn.

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REFERENCES

Lee, A. 1998. Chicken Tractor, The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and
Healthy Soils, 2nd ed. Good Earth Publications, Buena Vista, VA.

Mollison, B. 1990. Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable
Future. Island Press, Washington, DC.

Morrow, R. 2000. Earth User's Guide to Permaculture. Simon & Schuster,
Australia.

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ORIGINAL SOURCE

This article was originally published in The Overstory:

Lee, A. 2000. Animal tractor systems. The Overstory #50. Permanent
Agriculture Resources, Holualoa, Hawaii.

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