Is there a 'richard perkins' of dryland

Hi people

I hope you are doing good!

I have the ambition to run something similar as what richard perkins does in Sweden, in northern Morocco (hot and dry summer, +-30cm rainfall). Of course our climate and Richard's climate are opposite.

Therefore it would be great if I can find someone like Richard whom I can learn from or follow a course on how to raise pastured layers. I think that in my climate we must use tree rows (olives and so on) and leave more space for the pastured layers/broilers.

Thank you for any lead or advice (y)

Mohamed

Hi Mohamed

There is no-one that immediately springs to mind, but perhaps some more context might help.

What parts of Richard's operations do you want to implement? Is it just the pastured layers?

What is your current set-up in the area where you want to integrate chickens? You mention tree rows, and your hot-dry summers - what is your water retention and access situation, what is currently between the trees, are there any other systems in the same area that need to be considered?
Also, are there suitable local chicken breeds?

Sorry for all the questions but the right information will make all the difference.

Hi Mohamed,
I'm a little late to respond, and I certainly think that there is a time and a place for picking an animal or plant and adding it to your land because you want to. But I want to suggest that you back up a little. All too often, people (like me) will find a permaculture technique (swale, keyline, herb spiral, keyhole garden, hugelkultur, food forest, etc) and have a desire to add it to the land. Not all those techniques will work well in all landscapes. They are different tools for different places.

It sounds a little bit like you are saying that you want to do what Richard is doing in your area. The reason Richard is successful is because he is applying techniques (and even animals) in a way that works for his climate. I would like to suggest that instead of asking "How can I do that here?", that you ask "What can I do here?". You will have all sorts of cool things that you can do, because you are in a dry area, that Richard cannot. And he will have things that you will not be able to do because he is in a different climate.

The best examples I could think of are Geoff Lawton and Brad Lancaster. Geoff Lawton is probably the best Permaculture designer in the world (my opinion), and years ago was featured in a documentary called Greening the Desert. I cannot find the original, but I did find a playlist with all kinds of updates about it. Explaining how he did what he did. I would definitely check that out. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL321kfqP1fZnWTPPpqZUN9ntP2-rjIP39

Brad Lancaster from Arizona also has some pretty cool stuff... though most of what I have seen with his stuff is Urban.

dee Vos wrote:Hi Mohamed

There is no-one that immediately springs to mind, but perhaps some more context might help.

What parts of Richard's operations do you want to implement? Is it just the pastured layers?

What is your current set-up in the area where you want to integrate chickens? You mention tree rows, and your hot-dry summers - what is your water retention and access situation, what is currently between the trees, are there any other systems in the same area that need to be considered?
Also, are there suitable local chicken breeds?

Sorry for all the questions but the right information will make all the difference.

Hi Vos

I want to implement his whole idea of 'grazers (sheep) first then layers' and growing fruit trees in between. But the business part is clearly the layers.
So in my region the fundamental trees are olives, nuts, figs ...
But Olives is number one importance.

I need to say that I am still searching for the right land, where I hope to have groundwater (even if it is 200m deep). So currently my goal is to use my time efficient and think about good possibilities.

We can count on approximately 40cm of rain yearly. That is not much, but I think I can apply irrigation splinker daily (from october until mid june) on 800m² for the grazers so that when the 1200 layers follow (If I assume I can have the same density as Richard) there is much more life in the soil (insects, greenery). Mid june to october I need to think about where to put those chickens, because it will be hot and I prefer to let the 'pasture' rest with its long grass to keep the moisture in the soil high.

My hope is that by doing 'regenerative' agriculture the soil quality will be much higher so that the rainfall will mostly be absorped by my land. Therefore I need to sprinkle less and less in the future, + my land will hold more and more moisture.

Thank you for mentioning the chicken breed, I is evident that I need one for my climate (those with big red 'combs').

Mohamed

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Mohamed,
I'm a little late to respond, and I certainly think that there is a time and a place for picking an animal or plant and adding it to your land because you want to. But I want to suggest that you back up a little. All too often, people (like me) will find a permaculture technique (swale, keyline, herb spiral, keyhole garden, hugelkultur, food forest, etc) and have a desire to add it to the land. Not all those techniques will work well in all landscapes. They are different tools for different places.

It sounds a little bit like you are saying that you want to do what Richard is doing in your area. The reason Richard is successful is because he is applying techniques (and even animals) in a way that works for his climate. I would like to suggest that instead of asking "How can I do that here?", that you ask "What can I do here?". You will have all sorts of cool things that you can do, because you are in a dry area, that Richard cannot. And he will have things that you will not be able to do because he is in a different climate.

The best examples I could think of are Geoff Lawton and Brad Lancaster. Geoff Lawton is probably the best Permaculture designer in the world (my opinion), and years ago was featured in a documentary called Greening the Desert. I cannot find the original, but I did find a playlist with all kinds of updates about it. Explaining how he did what he did. I would definitely check that out. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL321kfqP1fZnWTPPpqZUN9ntP2-rjIP39

Brad Lancaster from Arizona also has some pretty cool stuff... though most of what I have seen with his stuff is Urban.

Hi Matt, thanks for the post.

I am aware of the danger to go and imitate someone in a totally different climate zone. I need solutions which work in my region.
You can read about what I currently think to do my previous post.

The permaculture movement is great, but people like Richard offer more realistic solutions to use permaculture in agriculture and food production.

I also think there is no other solution to combine vegetation and animals in my region, than using tree rows and mostly small animals between the rows. Note that I want to create a regenerative business.

I think the big difference between me and richard is that I need more tree rows, and let the 'pasture' rest in the summer (instead of winter on richard's land).

Mohamed