Kevin Mac

I have nine large geese on about two acres. I also have a couple dairy cows that eat pasture when available. The geese are out competing the cows because the geese need to eat grass year-round, or so I'm always told. I'm looking into other ways of maintaining the geese that would be limited pasture, with mostly feeding alternative food. I've thought of sprouted grains, leftover hay from cows, and maybe doing compost (for the worms and bugs.

I'm curious what others do if they don't keep geese on grass all year round?

Anne Miller wrote:I assume that spring is the best time for planting native grasses.

From your picture, it looks like overseeding with native grasses would be a real benefit.

For fall you might try some food plot mixtures.  Or a cover crop like winter rye.

I could do it in fall. Maybe put aside certain paddocks and seed with these native grasses. I don't know much about the native grasses but I need to learn. Been putting this off too long. And now I might not be able to support my cows on the pasture anymore... I'll call the Concentrates. They're a very respectable farm supply company here in Portland. They should have all the grasses I need.

Paul Fookes wrote:There is a TED talk about overstocking to improve soil fertility as well as some good work on this in north west Western Australia.  It sounds counter intuitive.  
It sounds like you have degraded clay soils which will require a fair bit of work.  I would consider goats, sheep and chickens, depending on the predators to really mix things up as well as getting some manure crops as well as pioneer grasses.
Think about working through John's questions.
Looking forward to hearing about your progress.

I can, and do occasionally run meat chickens on the pasture. I also have nine geese walking around, but they might be doing more harm than good. They pick a lot at the grass. I might opt to having them contained in a specific area for most of the day.

When is the right season to do a manure crop, or plant pioneer grasses? I'm in western Oregon.

John C Daley wrote:I doubt it. Cracking soil sounds like its drying out.
Have you tested the soil for moisture content, its the best way to know if the irrigation is sufficient?
How do you irrigate, sprays or flood irrigation?
If its flood are the paddocks graded to use water smartly?
Have you done any soil testing?
What is the land size and how many cows do you have, it sounds like too many?
Somebody who knows animals in your district might help you sort that out.

I don't think I'll have the soil tested. I only have a little over two acres and I use sprinklers to water the ground. I have two cows I'm milking and a heifer calf that are on the pasture.

I've gotten away with this for a few years without intervening with seeding the pasture, or other inputs. The ground is cracking, even though I irrigate it. Grass doesn't get as tall, of last as long. Now that hay is so expensive, I'm seriously worried about the cows getting enough food. I do have a great chicken run/compost system and I can produce a wheelbarrow full of dark rich compost every couple weeks. I've started spreading this compost on the bald spots on the pasture for now to see if it helps. Am I on the right track here?

I have a room addition on the north side of my house that's always cold. It would be a perfect opportunity to place a large compost pile just outside of the house to bring heat to the room. My question is, copper coils filled with water is most effective? Does this water filled coil pipe in through the wall into a radiator?

Also they are a warm water fish. In most of North America, we would need to heat the greenhouse in winter. I don't see how this would be very practical.

I don't believe I've ever eaten tilapia, so I can't say much about the taste. I have heard some negative things about farm raised fish, and I realize that here on this forum, with aquaponics, standard "farm raised" doesn't really apply. But can't we raise a myriad of different types of fish? What are people raising besides tilapia? I've heard that the South American Pacu is good eating. Are tilapia just really easy?

I was on here like 7 years ago and he had just written a book called Dairy Farming the Beautiful Way. I'm reinvestigating his ideas but no more info on him, just his book.