Jeff Marchand

What is foster-failed?

My cattle dog is a healthy as bull and happy as a clam.  He is also so very smart.  I cant get over how many words of mine he understands.
Sometime I ask him if he like to go back to the rescue where I got him he just (seems to me ) smiles and shakes his head.

I looked for but never found anywhere to train him to herd. Its a shame he would have been an excellent herder.  He and I have worked out rudementary herding on our own..
If we see a cattle where it does nt belong, he looks up at me and I say 'go' and he puts the fear of dog into them.  

Australian cattle dogs are basically just mixed breed mutts anyways so that why I think they are so healthy.

He is the best dog I ever had .

If you live on a farm and want your dog to be with you while doing chores I highly recommend just about any herding breed.  They are homebodies.
My first farm dog was a German Shorthaired Pointer. What a mistake. Id turn my back and he would be gone hunting, what a hunting dog is bred to do!
Mistake was mine. I had had a GSP in the city and wanted another not considering my circumstances had changed.

My current dog is an Australian Cattle Dog/Pitbull mix. Absolutely a wonderful  dog.  Loves every human he sees, helps herd my cattle. Devoted family dog.

Lets hope someone closer will take them.  

I'd take them in a heart beat but  I'm a little far.

I would think geese and LGDs would make one heck of a security team.  Ultra alert geese squawks and LGD comes running to see what the fuss is about.    Pity the fox who came for an easy meal.

Hi Brienne,  I just found your post.  I love it.  I raise beef on pasture and next year I will be getting sheep to follow them to eat the weeds they dont.  I believe in grazing my pastures as hard as possible and then give them as long of a rest as possible, and having as diverse of group of graziers as possible.  To that end Ive been thinking of following the sheep with geese very much like you are doing except keeping sheep and geese separate .  Have you tried that?  Did it not work?  

Do you sell the geese or eat them yourself?
Keep up the good work.  

Jeff

Do you / could you have a root cellar?  You could  store any root vegetable, for your and for bugs bunny. I dont and wished I did.  Like Ive been saying for years. "Maybe next year I'll have a root cellar."

Yeah Jay that makes sense to me.  My orchard is still young so does nt produce much woody waste yet.   It would be great candidate for biochar.  I do have many wild apple trees that need clearing, so I could make biochar out of them too,  

Alternatively I could chip them , use as bedding  then hot compost with manure and spread on hay field.  Bottom line ,  I just dont have enough woody waste!

There is a saw mill down the road from me where I could get off cuts and turn them into biochar, and Ive been thinking of doing that.  Then I run into the ultimate scarce resource: TIME!

I need lots of wood chips to mulch my apple trees and as  carbon source for manure composting.  I also heat exclusively with wood so I tend not to have much wood left to turn into biochar.

I am working towards doing a pig-aerator ala Joel Salatin, which is also going to be wood chip intensive ,  adding a layer of biochar when adding wood chips would be a nice touch. I just question whether I will have the extra waste wood.

My cattle eat the tops of the knapweed.  Its not their favourite but I dont let them on to the next strip of pasture until they do.  Thing is cattle only have bottom teeth so they cant eat past a certain point as its too woody.  I am getting sheep to finish the job. They will follow behind the cattle.