Stephan Schwab

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since Oct 29, 2017
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Recent posts by Stephan Schwab

That sounds good.

So probably the best method would be to put a chicken tractor or a mobile coop with electric netting around a small area there, let the chicken work and when rain is in the forecast we remove the chickens and start spreading the seeds. We could put the the cows on the area after spreading the seeds to let them trample them in.
4 years ago
Hi!

Unfortunately, we do have a large ant population and due to that we haven't had much success with all the seeds our grass produces at the end of spring. It just feeds the ants.

And because the ants steal all the seed produced by the grasses that we have, the gaps between the grass plants won't be filled.

We practice rotational grazing with a mob of 40 head in small paddocks of about 5000m2. That has improved the soil and plants do grow taller. But without the seed, we continue to have a lot of gaps.

We've thought about adding chickens so that they will go after the ants and then we might be able to spread seeds and use the cows to trample them in. Someone suggested to use sheep but we don't have them and we can't borrow a herd for the job.

Any other ideas how we can successfully reseed?
4 years ago

Can the lean startup way be adapted to farming, food foresting, etc? I think so!



Of course it can. That's exactly what we are doing at http://granja.caimito.net

Antonio, please contact me. We have things in common.
4 years ago
Hi!

We might want to talk to each other. Please check out http://granja.caimito.net We are "next door" in Andalucia. Please send email to info@caimito.net

There is a lot of things than can be done in Spain but one might stir up things a bit and get a negative reaction because of the positive thing one is doing.
4 years ago

Roxanne Sterling-Falkenstein wrote:Hugelkultur for hedges in arid climates can work to create some new tilth and compost for hedges to naturalize. I plant on the north side of berm (Oregon is dry also in summer) to shade root area, helping drought proof. I'd do that in November-December so winter rains help root stock develop before summer dry out..



That's a pretty interesting idea. I also came across "mulch pits".
4 years ago

Burl Smith wrote:Perhaps we could set aside one pathway between two of your paddocks for a ten-year study on the effectiveness of hazelnut hedges for the channeling of pigs and cows.



With hazelnut I have experience now. The sheep got into the enclosure and ate as high was they can. But I understand that you weave a fence with hazelnut and so I guess the leaves on the top will keep the plant alive.

I like the idea of hazelnut hedges. The main problem is - we did think about similar things with other plants for a living fence - that our soil is heavily degraded and the lack of rain during summer does not make it easier. We need to build up a lot of soil before we can actually use plants for a fence. For the moment we need non-living material.
4 years ago
Hi!

Our http://granja.caimito.net is coming along step by step and we are busy creating more and more permanent small paddocks of 5000m2 in size and pathways for the animals in between them. We rotate the cows daily and the soil is responding well to that.

Now - and that's the reason for this question - we have the idea to plant lavender along the animal pathways. I've seen that in France sheep are put onto lavender fields to do maintenance in between the rows of lavender. Apparently sheep won't touch lavender.

I'm wondering now how that is with all the other animals. We have cows, sheep, horses and pigs. Eventually they will be allowed to roam the whole place, find an open door, graze a paddock, we come and close the door and open another and so on.

We do use a lot of electric fencing in combination of physical fencing. We could protect the lavender with a wire to keep the cows out (they seem to go for it given nothing better is available). The pigs are also controlled by two wires at their height.

Eventually we do want to harvest the lavender and make products.

I'm putting this in "forest garden" as our whole farm is basically a forest (spanish Dehesa) and we try to put more and more plants back to where they're supposed to be.

Thanks in advance for ideas and thoughts about lavender and grazing animals.
4 years ago
Hi!

At http://granja.caimito.net me and my family are trying to do things the right way. We purchased a 45 hectare piece of land in Andalusia, Spain, where people raise mostly pigs and also some cows. We do not know much about most of the topics, but as I'm from the world of software development I am used to a steep learning curve and collaboration across organisational boundaries.

There are already several websites that allow people to purchase grass-fed beef. Pieces of cows are sold online and when the whole animal has been sold it gets slaughtered. That avoids wastes and seems to be more respectful. We want to follow that model once we have our first cow ready for market.

We have secured the collaboration of a local butcher for the actual processing of the meat and we know that we have to use a certified slaughterhouse in order to legally sell meat.

What is an open question is "what to do with the non-editable parts?"

I have created a Google Doc at

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LwhMDwW2hP6eaRbYoHlSdjx_t0gdbTW6c4BwrtIDQc/edit?usp=sharing

and my intent is to collaborate with all of you to gather as much detailed information as possible. The Google Doc is set up so that anyone with the link can edit it and leave comments.

I will add stuff myself as I research the topic. For example, I remember reading somewhere that the cow's blood can be turned into fertilizer. Or the stomachs can be fed to flies to produce larvae and the larvae can be used as chicken feed.

Later on I want to publish the curated version at our public/internal website http://bosque.caimito.net that shows how we work. Others can then also benefit from our mutual research.
5 years ago
So far no interest in eating meat. It appears that they are completely on a veggie diet spiced up with critters from the soil.
5 years ago
I now chopped it up. Let's see what will happen. I'll check back later and will report.
5 years ago