I have 7acres that I will be planting pasture on for rotational grazing. I don't have a tractor or large equipment, so I have been researching alternate methods for planting. A long time ago I ran across a study regarding penning your animals at night in small pens and spreading seed on the ground in the pen where the animals bed down for the night. The animals trample the seed into the ground and the manure fertilizes. This allows for god soil to seed contact. The pen is then moved to a new location and rotated around the property slowly after a certain number of days in that location.
I totally dig this idea. The animals are doing the work for me, I will be using their byproducts immediately, I dont have to worry about shoveling out a permanent bedding area, I will be rotating them around anyways, and their bedding will act as mulch after they leave. Wow!
Has anyone ever heard of this before or seen it done? The article I found was an official educational study with statistics, control groups and everything. they came up with the optimum population density to put in the pen and the number of days to keep them there for maximum seed germination. I think they even created a unit, something like "square-foot head days" :
I have tried, and tried to find this article again, and can't. maybe some of you have some super searching skills and can help me out? I would be very very thankful!
Any thoughts on this?
