Agroforesty/Includes pig production ideas

[dlskidmore]

@near horse 28647 wrote:

If you chose the right sheep breed, you could allow them to graze AND provide milk for growing your pigs until the orchard is up to speed. At least it’s an indirect way of raising your pigs on the bluegrass

That adds a major labor overhead though…

[Andy Carson]

I think I’ll use geese to graze between the trees for the first few years and perhaps beyond. There are several reasons. 1) I have experience with poultry, and none with sheep. 2) Geese can also live mostly on grass, and are unlikely to damage trees. 3) I have taken time this year to train a new dog to guard poultry and have lost no chickens even though they have been free ranging (this is a HUGE factor). 4) The reproduction rates of geese is such that I can overwinter just a few geese and still have plenty in the spring then the grass comes in. 5) They are comparatively cheap. 6) The laws pertaining to the slaughter and sale of poultry are more attractive to a small producer than those pertaining to larger animals.

Really, it was the reproduction rate and having a trustworthly and attentive dog that made the biggest difference in comparing animals for this job.

It seems like I am ending up with a small ecosystem… 🙂

[dlskidmore]

What breed is the dog? What training method did you use?

I love working with dogs, but I’m concerned there may be issues having both house dogs and livestock guardians. You can’t mix livestock guardians with herding dogs, can you?

[Andy Carson]

He is a German Shepherd/Lab cross. He acts like a shepherd, but looks like lab so neighbors/visitors aren’t afraid of him. My training method was to expose him to the chickens alot from when he was a very young puppy, yell at him if he chased them, and generally encourage him to be territorial. With a Shepherd, this does take alot of encouragement, more like I didn’t yell at him if he barked at things. I never trained him to go after “critters,” but he does that on his own and he’s intimidating enough that few predators would wait and see if he will actually bite. He actually never chased chickens in the first place, I think b/c of the very early exposure starting when he was 7 weeks. It was alot of help that I already had two pugs that are alot not inclined to chase the chickens either. He kinda followed suit and used them as role models. The Shepherd in him makes him do patrols of the place every half hour or so. I didn’t really “train” him to do this in a formal way, I just praised him alot for doing the patrols. I do make him come along with he when I do chores and I think this taught him the areas that need covered (he follows the same track when he does patrols). The two pugs and him work as a pretty efficient team for guarding, because the pugs are a little more “alert” (like alot of small dogs) and thier yapping brings whatever “it” is to the attention of the shepherd mix, who goes and “checks it out.” Often times, it’s not important, but little escapes the attention of all three of them. The chickens are put up in thier coop at night, too, which is probably also important as well.

He is not a livestock guardian dog in the sense that he feels the need to protect his livestock specifically. He is more of a guard dog that feels a need to protect his territory. I felt that this type of protection was easier to deal with and as the chickens don’t range far, I think it is just fine.

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