josh akers

Sandhill has some seed mixes for birds
https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/specialty

William Bronson wrote:The mulberry leaves are high in protein .
I have tried them myself,  fresh they are too tough to enjoy.
My chickens and rabbits don't care for them,  but the pollarded trees produce a lot of foilage, I cut the back twice a year.
Would pigs eat these if they could get to them?

Black walnuts are hard to harvest, but I'm told hogs can crack them easily.
Dwarf Chinkapin Oaks produce low tannin acorns  precociously and abundantly.
They are short and can  spread vegetatively by means of underground rhizomes
Chestnuts trees can be spliced onto oaks trees,  so you might be able to shortcut your way to some full sized chestnut production.
Chestnuts and hazels are great producers, and all of these tree crops benefit from hogs being inured to disease and insect damage.
Hell,bugs in pig food is just extra protein,right?

Maybe if the trees were coppiced so the pigs could reach they would.
I'm thinking like how they grow luecaena trees in australia for cows.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wj14UNTKpo
IDK if that would be worth it to do for fruiting trees but maybe poplar/blacklocust/willow ect if pigs eat those.
At the very least could be harvested for tree-hay winter feed.

Really interesting idea about the chestnut splice and dwarf chinkapins - thanks for sharing.

Often times I see people talk about line breeding and what not but not very many go into the logistics of how specifically they keep track of individuals and who the parents are ect.

Take chickens for example with clan breeding. Where you have 3 clans and 3 separate pens  1 rooster per ~12 hens in each.

You can use color leg bands and even put a unique ID # or something on each one. but how do people go about determining what chick came from what hen in this situation ?  especially on larger scale breeding programs.

I heard a few methods but none seem scalable or convenient I should say.  
-trap nest boxes
-breed one rooster to one hen at a time
-assume the hens are laying on their own eggs

or maybe I'm overthinking it - and just simply knowing a chick came from Clan B or w/e is good enough to trace issues back.

I like the idea of using kintraks or some other software to track lines once you have correctly established who the parents are with 100% accuracy though

Thinking about planting some trees in the pasture and coppice for stemmy regrowth at browsing height.  Or possibly pollarding and harvesting tree hay.
Trees like Willow/poplar/black locust/mulberry/hazelnut  that would do well with being grazed/pruned.

Do you have any experience with tree fodder for dexter cattle  in addition to grass ?
Similar to how Greg Judy would coppice autumn olive trees and let the animals eat the new shoots. https://onpasture.com/2017/04/03/autumn-olive-friend-or-foe/

As far as breeding goes - you mentioned the cows should not be bred when under ~14 months of age because they are still growing.
Can you speak more to the logistics of doing this?
Do you just sort out the cows ready to breed and put them in with the bulls for X amount of time ?
This would mean you also have to keep the bulls separate from the main herd for pretty much the rest of the time right?  I was hoping to just put the bulls back in with the herd  except for dec/jan/feb/marc to prevent winter calving but now that doesn't sound like such a good idea.
Roughly how many bulls does it take to service X amount of cows effectively?

Kinda looks like cercospora
https://crop-protection-network.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/Cercospora-Daren-Mueller-30.jpg

so do you just smoke it or lol

Looked into osange orange a little more - sounds slightly similar to black locust  with more hedgy growth.  ill definitely try growing some of these.

IDK how but never heard of pawpaw it does grow here looks like.. This fruit sounds amazin! banana + mango  I'm sold.  and it says it grows in understory so this is a plus in my eyes.

I'm curious if blackberrys will grow on trees as well and if its a positive interaction with the tree. Or if any vine growing on a tree is beneficial for it really.  The idea of making a guild with trees is nice

This is great info !
For water there is a river that borders the property - planning on setting up some irrigation so there is gravity fed water at strategic locations.

Ill have to do some research on berries and vines. Thornless blackberries sounds interesting!

I thought electric fences can't have anything touching on it. unless you mean have some strands that are not hot? Really liking the idea of vines on the perimeter fences though .

These are the trees I plan on growing to support various livestock (mostly hogs/chickens and might expand to a few cows/goat/sheep later on)
Middle Tennessee  - roughly 10-20 acres.
10+ Rotational paddocks 1 week intervals on average.

NUTS
*Chestnuts - basically corn on a tree. Reliable annual yields. Most of the nut trees will be this. (varieties that are blight resistant)
*Hazelnut - shrub variety
Oak - White oaks most likely
a Few hickory/black walnuts

FRUIT
*Mulberry
*Apple
*Persimmons
Elderberry shrub
a few pear/cherry. still researching.

OTHER
*Black Locust - pioneer tree - firewood for home/posts - soil building and pods/leaves for food
Siberian Pea shrub
Poplar
Willow

*=primary crops
--------------------
I plan to grow a lot of these by seed understanding the long term wait for yields and not "true-to-type" nature. I will plant a few grafts/clones to make sure some are good and provide "bulls" to help cross pollinate for traits with some varieties.
Rows of trees running north - south and 10+ feet in between with various ground forage (different topic all together for this but warm/cold grasses, legumes, comfrey, vegies ect.)

I am not concerned with "invasive" species because I want this to be very self sufficient and hardy setup plus I plan on living here for a long long time.
Black locust for example could be used to set the stage so to speak for the slower trees to get established and thinned out when necessary - all while building soil/wood.

3D electric deer fence / woven wire will be setup before planting to help protect the young trees. Looking into tree tubes as well for smaller critters.
--------------------


Any suggestions or feedback is welcome!

Should I plant rows and mix plants throughout the property or maybe group different types into a separate paddock  and rotate animals according to harvest times?

I don't know anyone that likes this stuff in person so I figured I can talk to people online about stuff like this

Currently reading "Trees of Power" by Akiva Silver and have several more books lined up.

Note: I am not trying to make this a business - this will be for my own enjoyment family/friends