ADD – Animal Deficit Disorder – Agrarian Style
Where to start on this post? The gist of it has been in my head since early last year when I finally put a name to what I was seeing gradually becoming the norm. If you live in the city you may have heard of Nature Deficit Disorder, but I think rural farming areas can have a different kind of disorder brought on by modern farming techniques too. And not to single out just the rural enclave, urban gardeners can come down with this same condition.
You have to understand I have led a somewhat sheltered gardening and farming life. I have always been around gardeners and farmers who kept livestock and realized the benefits of animal manures. While that was born out of frugality and not being wasteful just because farmers and gardeners of the past couldn’t afford to waste such a valuable resource, I feel we have come to the tipping point of not being able to waste it anymore either. Whether you come at this from strictly an economic standpoint, or from an earth friendly standpoint the end result is the same. Hunger. Most gardens I see look hungry. Pale and wan like a sick child. Never mind that all kinds of care and the latest methods of gardening have been employed. I absolutely love the gardens at Edgefield, mainly because I love Edgefield and the idea of the Poor Farm as it was and I am grateful this local treasure has been saved from the wrecking ball. But something is missing, the neat raised beds with their organic compost and drip irrigation (which I don’t like, but that is for another post) are lovely in their efficiency, but the vegetables always look off to me. The composting efforts they employ are to be commended, grape pomace, spent hops, restaurant scraps are all well and good and should be composted, but I think what is missing is the animal manure component. I know. Where to fit in animals at a place like Edgefield with its perfect golf course and doody free grounds? I don’t know - while I personally would like to see dairy cows there with an artisan sized creamery, probably the best place there these days, for those fat, sassy Holsteins cows of old, are in the vintage photos displayed in the old Power Station building. Now a pub, I get a jolt of nostalgia every time I see those verdant pastures of the Poor Farm in sepia. If only milk was as lucrative as handcrafted beer and gin…sigh. The barns are all gone - historic artifacts in their own right – salvaged and reincarnated into other lives now, and it doesn’t help when good gardening books eschew animal manures with broad statements like “forget the time-worn practice of using animal manures..” Time-worn my ass, sure some animal manures should not be used for varying reasons, but likewise neither should many other things be used on our gardens and farms.
Cows grazing the headlands again at Edgefield aside, other gardens I have seen are weak looking too, even though right there is a butt load of manure coming from free-ranging chickens and maybe other livestock, but it is being deposited where the animals are free-ranging. Too many times the connection of sustainability is lost with the free-range movement. Free-range is a consumer term that evokes an image. Unfortunately too many times the reality of that image is not a pretty sight. During our time as chicken and egg sellers we explained our views on free-range vs. fresh range. Some times we didn’t get that customer who was dead set that chickens do not want to live in any type of confinement, and we were OK with that. They needed to find different farmers and we needed different customers. We would not compromise our ideals and let the chickens continue to fowl foul the area with the notion that they would “know” to range farther and farther away and be able to avoid parasites. We moved their feathernet every three days to where we deemed they should be. Chickens have a very strong homing instinct, and will come back to the same home if allowed, they feel safe and secure and if the shit gets deep, oh well, it’s home. And if you consider that chicken pathogens start kicking in at about 3 – 4 days, you have a problem. We no longer keep a huge flock of chickens and I now keep my chickens in total confinement on deep bedding. It’s work, but it provides an ample amount of composty chicken manure for my gardens, and I think the chickens are fine. I know that is a total pendulum swing from pastured poultry but we have made this work. I can keep my chickens safe, they are healthy, and we have eggs. The bedding chores are a necessary part of husbandry, I believe.
Besides gardens the other place I’ve seen true plant hunger is in the hay area. Hay for livestock is very subjective. Everyone has an opinion including me. I think our hay is good, actually I think we make some great hay, and our hay is made from paddocks that we have let get away from us on purpose. We are baling hay from our pastures, not specifically just setting aside a hayfield. And that is where the problems lies in most hay fields. They are always just hay fields. No animal impact, cut the same time every year, some times multiple times per year if irrigation is available. Modern day haymaking also suffers from the mono-crop style of farming. Just like our lawns, we want one type of grass growing there, and that is it, the rest of the “weeds” be damned. Shopping for hay if you don’t grow it yourself is a nightmare and there is a plethora of choices, and they all have their drawbacks and benefits. Anytime we have had to buy hay to make up for a shortfall in our crop we have had mixed results. It doesn’t matter how much we pay, if the cows don’t eat it or sort and pick through it, it is a waste of money. I saw a quote from Greg Judy awhile back that summed up our experience with the oxen in our midst, and it is so true. “We can’t outsmart our cows, but we can sure out-stupid them.” Amen. I trust my cows palate, their sense of smell and taste is so far beyond a human it isn’t even funny, try feeding a cow hay fertilized with sewage sludge, err, I mean biosolids. No dice, or at least not on my farm. Is it because the cows didn’t get the memo about biosolids being safe, or is it because they don’t like the taste, and recognize it as less than health giving?
The other side of the hay coin too, here in the Pacific Northwest, is that we can import hay from the brittle side of the Cascade mountain range, where it is much easier to make hay without getting it rained on. The east side gets their rain in the winter too like we do, but with yearly totals of 10 – 25 inches instead of 40+ they have haymaking heaven. The drawback? There is more to making hay than just not getting it rained on. Usually that eastern hay is heavily fertilized and irrigated, it looks good to us, but can give a false sense of security from a nutrition standpoint. The plants in those hay fields don’t have to work very hard to grow, no deep roots to bring up minerals that are needed for a nutritionally balanced feed. Quantity is the end all here. The more hay you harvest the more hay you can sell. Somehow the nuances of hay making that were so prevalent years ago when everyone had livestock have slipped from our grasp, even though we want fresh milk and good meat from our animals we expect them to do it on less than desirable feeds. We as eaters need to pay as much attention to our animals groceries as we do our own. We are what we eat, and they are too. But back to the hay, it depends on the hay and it depends on the animal(s). If your animal is having problems with holding condition while producing, re-breeding,retained placenta, mastitis, ketosis, milk fever, skin and coat conditions, look to your hay supply and your minerals. Keeping livestock is not as simple as it looks.
That’s probably enough ranting though for now, I guess, a solution is always better than just complaining. If you have animals, of any kind, innovate and find way to capture the manure to keep it on your land and from getting to the waterways. In the PNW, (or actually any wet area) winter housing is a great way to go, add carbon of your choice, keep the animals dry and you have the makings of your own fertilizer. Not to mention you need to buy less feed, because the animals are warm and dry. In the summer, rotate your pastures or chicken yards providing fresh forage and allowing for your ground to rest from the animal impact. On small holdings, backyards and farms you can marry the livestock keeping with gardening efforts and really make a full circle by connecting the links of your own personal food chain.
Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
Another great post! I’m reading Gene Logsdon’s HOLY SHIT! in which he essentially says the same thing you just said. I have bought compost using cow manure but now I think I’ll start composting some myself. I only have 6 chickens and 3 ducks but there is a new equestrian center opening just down the road and they might be a good source of horse manure!
Linda, it all helps! You will see a difference in the productivity and health of your garden – I promise.
You go, girl!
Have you read “Holy Shit” by Gene Logsdon? Or for that matter “The Vegetarian Myth”by Lierre Kieth. Or, google EROI – energy return on investment – and farming.
Of old, we got 5-20 times the energy out from farming as was put in. Then we found oil. I’ve seen various estimates now that indicate we are near, at, or past the tipping point.
Not. Sustainable.
Marilyn, only read snippets of Gene’s new book, and I have read The Vegetarian Myth, very good. Right now, I’m reading Better Off by Brende. So far, so good. Not so sure what the social effect of one year experiments will have in the long run though…
Yeah, way past the tipping point, and a disturbing new trend I see is new farmers not even caring a whit about how to manage their livestock manure outputs. Even if you don’t give a damn about pollution, or peak oil, or fill-in-the blank, most people should be able to figure out the economic aspect of keeping manure on the farm in a usable form, non-offensive form.
you are a true advocate for manure! I have learned a lot from your multiple posts on manure management/composting. As a farm that is animal heavy/plant light (five acres – two ponies, half a dozen goats, thirty chickens on the animal side: a few hundred square feet garden on the plant side) I need to take manure management seriously. You have been a great resource. Thanks!
“those fat, sassy Holsteins cows of old” – that line just made my day. Since reading it I’ve been sittting here feeling all sentimental and nostalglic for our cows, long gone now but still missed. I love your posts about Jane, but secretly my heart belongs to a black and white cow named Jenny that I haven’t seen since I was eight. Thank you, it made me smile.
Very well said. We’re fortunate that when we moved, I put my garden in the barnyard where there have been horses and/or cows for years and years. We aren’t planning on getting any large animals so we felt OK using that space as it was fenced. I know that we don’t have that much time left running on the fertilizer left by our predecessors. But, I’m so excited that we’re getting chickens this spring. I’m planning to use the deep bedding system as well and keep them confined to a fenced run. We have WAAAAY too many predators for them to be safe free ranging- they wouldn’t last a week. I’m hoping that by next year I’ll have some good compost for the garden.
I just have a little suburban backyard plot, and we aren’t allowed livestock, but…last fall I finally found a source of horse manure. I’m already amazed at the difference I’m seeing in my garlic this season as compared to last.
There is a farm in the valley near here that grows corn for chickens, after the harvest he moves his cows into the area for little while before growing again. Also he adds a lot more manure before reseeding…. can barely breath going by the place!
Our neighbor has some free ranging chickens. Though my dogs are in a huge 6 ft fence they have managed to kill a few. We have had to run a wire around the top, due to one little dog climbing out… then the babies chicks would walk right thru the chain link, so we had to wrap it with tiny chicken wire, then a stupid hen flew in to get away from the rooster…. then they have to deal with the hawks and other wild life that is not usually seen. Another good reason for keeping your chickens at home! Love your blog!
I wish my nieghbors were as conscientious as you! I used to free-range my chickens, with no problems at all, until a neighbor’s dog (who he lets run free in the neighborhood) started killing them. I went to tell him about it and he said, “Yeah. She killed all my chickens too!” As if it was funny! I ended up putting my chickens in a section of electric poultry netting. They don’t have as much nice stuff to eat and scratch at, but at least they don’t get eaten by dogs.
Perhaps Edgefield should take lessons from Whistling Straits Golf Course in Kohler, Wisconsin. A flock of Scottish Blackface sheep roam the grounds except during tournaments.
http://golf.about.com/od/golfcourses/ig/Whistling-Straits-Golf-Course/Whistling-Straits-Hole-11.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/okaypookie/3861036490/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lavalley/2163186144/
Heck, I live in a subdivision and I can see the difference where I have put well composted pet manure, garden waste, kitchen scraps… I was brought up to believe you should try to improve the fertility of the soil where ever you live. My neighbors think I am nuts for not wanting a monoculture grass lawn but, Oh Well!
This is the year I have planned to make more use of my rabbit and chicken manure. We have been throwing into a compost pile, but really haven’t done anything more with it than “feed’ the chickweed that is taking it over. You have inspired me to really make use of it.
I am running a little experiment here this year. For the last several years, I have been trying to rely more on our own inputs for fertility — compost and chicken manure. This last year it became painfully obvious that there was *not* nearly enough organic matter in the soil for the density of vegetables we planted, not in any of the beds. So this year, I have our beds pretty well divided up into: local horse manure fertilizer (stable up the street about a mile) and compost/purchased steer manure. Some beds I even split right down the middle and plan to plant the same varieties throughout to see which makes the better fertilizer. And of course, all the beds will get ‘chicken poop soup’ (composted chicken manure ‘tea’). So it will be interesting to see which beds produce best.
Having had the benefit of coming from a farming family, I value manure and I really can’t wait until Gene’s book is finally off back order for checking out at the library.
I would love to hear your thoughts on drip tubing. Last year, I used an impact sprinkler (mostly because of the low cost and simplicity) and I had immense problems with fungal diseases. This year, I’m going to try soaker hose.
It may be that our area is unique, with our low humidity in the summer, we rarely see any type of fungal disease during summer gardening time. I’ve had better luck with overhead watering, plants take in moisture through more than their roots. But I do use soaker hoses in the hoophouse, mostly for my convenience, and for directing the water to the plants and not my paths.
Here when it rains in the summer, (because we have drought conditions every summer) you can hear the plants and trees breathe a sigh of relief. I also break all the rules and overhead water my plant starts too instead of a wicking tray.
I see. Yeah, these Tennessee summers are HUMID, with 90% humidity plus for almost all the summer. Overhead watering was a real disaster. I hope the soaker hoses work better. I think the real question there will be their durability. I’m sure they’ll work, just how long will they last. It better be a while, given the expense.
I’ve used my soaker hoses for about 6 years in the greenhouse which is very intense heat & light in the summer. So far no problems with any failures, except I learned (in 5 minutes) I have to have pressure to make them work properly – our gravity flow spring water operates on volume instead of pressure
So I have to purchase that water. I put them in place when I plant and they stay there until the tomatoes come out in October – however I quit watering August 1st to get decent tomatoes.
I couldn’t agree more with everything you are saying here Matron. My goats barely eat the grass hay and orchard grass I get from the local feed store. It ends up becoming expensive bedding.
I also did the deep bedding this winter for them and the chickens and I am loving the result so far- a giant pile of manure and hay composting for the garden- YAY!
We have gone both ways with our chickens- letting them free range all over our property, which meant they pooped everywhere and destroyed garden beds all year long-not good at all!- and now we keep them confined to a little less than an eighth of an acre- much better. My goal this year is to divide up that eighth of an acre and rotate them on those small pastures and plant cover crops for them to forage and eat. Hopefully it works to feed the ladies as well as the soil for future gardening.
I have tremendous respect for my cow’s palates also. I’m amazed at how they can hone in on one tasty blade of grass apart from all the other grasses in the hay.
Has anyone tried offering GMO grain side by side with open pollinated? I was wondering if the cows had anything to add to the debate – somehow nobody ever remembers to ask their opinion.
Lots to think about once again; you pack a lot into a post for sure.
If Danone can sell the public bifidus regularis, maybe you can package up composted manure in fancy bags and sell it to the McMansion-ites as probiotic enhanced plant conditioner.
I think it is a good thing you are doing – overall. Your thrift and close observation of detail in the service of searching for the core of life, coupled with your written reports, is in the best spirit of Henry David Thoreau.
Thanks.