HELPERS by JESSICA KLICK

J

Livestock aren't just useful for meat

and eggs. They can mow lawns, work

garden soil, dig stumps and more!

L awns first became fashionable in theMiddle Ages. Back then, the only alterna-tive to sending fiocks of sheep to graze thelawn was hiring men with scythes. Since

that time, lawns and gas-powered lawn mowershave become ubiquitous, while the use of sheepto keep grass neat has become rare. Why is this?Using sheep to keep lawns trim is quiet, requiresno fossil fuel, adds fertilizer to your lawn, and haswonderful side benefits — meat and wool — thatno mechanical mower can provide.

Sheep aren't the only livestock that can servemultiple purposes. Each type of livestock has naturalhabits with potential uses around your homestead.

6 8 MOTHEREARTHNEWS April/May2011

Hogs will dig stumps to get to corn or acorns huried nearby. Left: Sheep "mow" an orchard.

Pigs are nature's plows. Geese feast ongrassy weeds. Ducks eat slugs and bugs.

Though tising working animals on yourhomestead has many benefits, it involvessome work, too. Unlike gas-pow-ered equipment, animals can't beput away in the garage until thenext time you need them. Theyneed food, water, shelter, fencingand occasional veterinary care.So, why keep them?

"We use our animals for their animalpurpose—for meat—and we have drafthorses we use for work, but we also usethem for their manure or to work theground, control weeds or graze covercrops," Hayden says.

Matt Elston and Kirk Fackrell ownGascade Meadows Farm, a diversifiedfarm in Sandy, Ore. Their livestock con-sist of Dexter cattle, pastured poultry,American Guinea hogs, Icelandic sheepand miniature dairy goats. They recentlyhad piglets from their pair of Guineahogs, and they plan to use this small breedof swine to remove unwanted vegetation.Elston and Fackrell find their miniaturedairy goats to be especially effective at

Each type of livestock has natural

habits with potential uses.

Multipurpose LivestockIntegrating working animals into your

landscape makes your backyard more ofa natural ecosystem in which flora andfauna interact. John Hayden, who runsan integrated farm called "The FarmBetween" in Jeffersonville, Vt., raisesplant crops and livestock. He manageshis livestock to reduce the amount of la-bor and fertilizer he puts into his plantcrops. He refers to the technique of us-ing animals for more than one purpose as"stacking functions."

blackberry control, and they provide tastymilk, as well. "What we're trying to dohere is bring together a new understand-ing of old techniques, to have our farmwork holistically with as few outside in-puts as possible, and get as much as wecan out of each individual on the farm,"Elston says.

Sheep ShearShrubs and More

Though he no longer keeps sheep,Hayden found them useful for control-ling vegetation. "We had some stone

walls that were overgrown and brushy,and we mobbed sheep on them and letthe sheep kill everything there," he says."Now we have nice stone walls to lookat again." ("Mob" grazing means confin-ing a group of animals in a small space sothey feed on vegetation that may be lessdesirable to them.)

Sheep will eat both grass and tenderweeds, and can be rotationally grazed usingmovable electric fencing. Movable fencingallows landowners to target livestock graz-ing activity on whichever vegetation theywant to manage, rather than being limitedto letting animals graze only large, perma-nendy fenced areas.

Those with a smaller area of land maybe interested in using a smallerbreed of sheep to manage vegeta-tion. The Olde English BabydollSouthdown breed reaches a max-imum height of 24 inches. Thesesheep have a gende dispositionand don't girdle trees or shrubs.

Deborah Rendon of Milpas Altas Farmin Ghalfont, Pa., raises and sells OldeEnglish Babydoll Southdown sheep andsays they're terrific living lawn mowers.Perennials and shrubs in their grazingarea should be protected, or the sheepmay nibble on the leaves. "They'll getbored,"' Rendon says. "When you firstput them out on pasture, they prefer thegreen grass, but after they've been in onearea for a period of time, they get inter-ested in other things." She recommendscovering any leafy vegetation you don'twant munched with deer netting, or

www.MorHEREARTHNEws.coM April/May 2011 6 9

fencing the sheep out of off-limits areaswith movable electric fencing.

Goat Dozersand Pig Plows

Tougher vegetation control involv-ing woody shrubs and brambles requirestougher livestock. Coats fit the bill here.They can control all sorts of noxious andwoody plants, including poison ivy, poi-son oak and kudzu. They are so effective atcontrolling brush that companies through-out the country rent goats for land clear-ing. The Boer meat breed is most favoredfor clearing land. Small-property own-ers who also want milk from their goatsmight consider one of the dwarf breedsof dairy goat. In addition to their brush-munching abilities, they are {jedte, easy tohandle and produce a respectable amountof milk for their size. Elston and Fackrellkeep Miniature Nubian goats, which area cross between Nigerian Dwarf goats andstandard-sized Nubian goats. Their goats

Goats eat allkinds of weedsand brush.What's tbeeasiest andsafest methodof mowing agreen roof? Let

K the goats grazeI on it!

show a marked preference for eating broad-leaved plants rather dian grass. Because ofthis preference, Elston says, "The best grasson our fiirm now is in our goat pasture."Each of their small goats will give between2 and 3 quarts of milk per day.

Pigs will clear land that is too rough evenfor goats. They will root and dig up stumpsif food such as shelled corn or acorns hasbeen put into holes made at the bases ofthe stumps. They will reportedly even felltrees using this method. Hayden uses hispigs to help compost his horse manure."The manure pile becomes tighdy packedin winter, and we'll pound an iron barin there and drop grains of com into theholes. The pigs turn that manure to get atthe corn," he says. Haydens pigs also grazedown his cover crops and clear land thatwill be planted with vegetables. He claimsthey're especially helpfiil in clearing land ofquack grass, as pigs like to eat quack grassrhizomes. He cautions that pigs aren't idealfor land clearing on all soils, though. "If

you have heavy soils and it rains, they cancompact it and mess up your soil struc-ture, so weVe only used them on our light,sandier soils." Hogs don't dig just the areasthat you want them to, of course. If youfence them on a lawn, they'll "rototill " theentire area, or large chunks of it.

Hard-WorkingPastured Poultry

Poultry aren't experts at clearing land (al-

though they will if many are concentrated

long enough in one area), but they work

the land as a multifunction labor force.

Poultry are scratchers, foragers, insect eat-

ers, and sources of meat, eggs and high-ni-

trogen fertilizer. Chickens in particular are

becoming fashionable backyard livestock,

even in suburban areas. T h e reason for

their popularity is obvious: They're small

but productive. Even the smallest back-

yard can house a couple of hens.

If you keep the coop near your garden,

you can easily feed your chickens food

scraps, insect pests and weeds, and the

chickens will dispose of them for you,

turning them into eggs or meat. Chickens

can be moved into your garden and fruit

orchards in the fall after harvest to clean

up insects and fertilize and turn the soil

surface. If you have horses, cows or other

livestock, chickens will help maintain

their pasture. They scratch up and spread

pats of dung and eat any parasite larvae

they find. One caveat: Refrain from keep-

WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COIII April/May 2011 7 1

Movable electric-net fencing keeps chickens in the area you want them to work.

ing chickens in your garden during thegrowing season, because they'll eat yourcrops as well as insects, and their manurewouldn't be an appealing addidon to yourvegetable harvest,

A chicken labor force can be movedaround your property using a "chickentractor, " which is a movable coop that caneasily be pulled or pushed to new forag-ing areas. Ghicken tractor designs can

vary, but they should be predator-proof.(Look for a new DIY coop design in ourJune/July issue. —MOTHER) Ghickens canalso be moved around your property us-ing movable electric poultry netting.

Geese like to eat grass and youngweeds more than they like to eat ma-ture, broad-leaved plants. They nipoff tender weeds at the soil line anddon't disturb the roots of surrounding

plants. This makes them fine weedersof established plants, such as tomatoesand strawberries. Hayden used them toweed his strawberries one year, "Afterthe strawberries were transplanted thatfirst spring, we would let them run in."Hayden says, "We would use electro-mesh fence. We put their food and wa-ter on different ends of the plot, so theywouldn't just hang around in one area."The Ghinese and Gotton Patch breedsof geese are considered some ofthe bestfor weeding because they're lightweightand active foragers. Geese are also good"watchdogs," announcing and some-times even accosting intruders.

Ducks love to eat slugs as well as othergarden pests, such as snails and grasshop-pers, Indian Runner ducks are excellentforagers and can lay 200 or more eggs perduck per year. TheyVe hardy poultry andproduce a respectable number of eggs,even in winter, making them an attrac-tive bird for cold climates. Another duckbreed said to be a voracious slug eateris the Khaki Gampbell, which averages

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Guinea fowl will tout a plagueof ticks, and they'll do a num-ber on all of the insects in yourgarden, including mosquitoesand Japanese beetles. KatenGrüner, who gardens and keepsdraft horses, mules and donkeyson her farm in Ijamsville, Md.,also keeps guinea fowl for justthis reason. "They eat a wide va-riety of insects, including ticks,but unlike chickens they don'tscratch in the garden, so theycan run in your garden withoutmaking a mess, " Grüner says. Inaddition to disposing of ticks,guineas can lay an egg a day. ^

(Two guinea eggs equal one largechicken egg.) Harvey Ussery ofnorthern Virginia reports that guineas,when penned with his squash, provide ex-cellent control of squash bugs. For morereports on the amazing Poultry Pest Patrol,go to bit.lylgXeAz9.

Poultry are scratchers, foragers,

insect eaters, and sources of meat,

eses and hieh-nitroeen fertilizer.

Best Picks forSuburban Backyards

Suburbanites may not have the option ofkeeping larger livestock in their backyards,but they can still incorjwrate animals into

their landscape. Hayden adviseswould-be suburban farmers tostick with smaller animals, suchas chickens. Elston recommendsthe smaller breeds of dairy goatsfor backyard situations. His in-terest in these breeds was firstpiqued when he was investigat-ing livestock that he could keepin his backyard, before he andhis family bought their farm.

Incorporating livestock intoyour homestead will enliven andenrich it. Managed with skill,your animals will benefit yoursoil and landscape. Hayden sayshis livestock's contributions tothe farm go beyond vegetationcontrol. "As an organic farmer,we're trying to mimic nature and

'" look at how ecosystems wotk,"he says. "They always have animals inte-grated into them. Whether it's the wilde-beests grazing in the Serengeti or the bisonon the plains, there's always an animal in-terface with the crops." 'fl*

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