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Sheep + Goats = Higher Yields. Cattle too?

 
Posts: 104
Location: Rutledge, MO
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According to various unscientific sourses I've read, goats and sheep have been raised together successfully for possibly thousands of years in Asia Minor and east Africa.

It's based on the fact that the two species prefer different feed plants. Can someone expand on how they are kept together, in detail?

What about adding cattle to the mix?

Poultry?
 
pollinator
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Location: Central Texas USA Latitude 30 Zone 8
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I own Jacob sheep, a primitive goat-like breed, who eat as though they are goats, so I think if you're going to do it, you need to make sure you get a grazing breed of sheep and not a browsing one.

 
pollinator
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Yes, they all can live together--the sheep eat plants A B and C, the goats eat D E and F, and the cattle eat G and H.

It is HIGHLY SPECIFIC to your plant and animal breeds.
 
Collin Vickers
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Can you offer any insight into running chickens, geese, turkeys or other poultry in the same A - H kind of environment?
 
R Scott
pollinator
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The chickens/turkeys follow behind and eat the grasshoppers and larvae out of the dung piles--and scratch them into easily available fertilizer to the plants.

I am not sure about the geese, but I expect they gleen any grass seed before the stems are eaten by the cattle (who prefer the green shoots first) and will take out any slug problems just as they do in the garden.
 
Collin Vickers
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I know ducks eat slugs, but geese?
 
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