Livestock are an integral part of our farming system. We currently raise chickens for meat, geese for meat, chickens for egg production and more recently, pigs. All stock are kept on free range in order for them to contribute to the ‘whole system’ and of course to provide the animals with a high standard of living. We also find that giving animals free range and the chance to behave naturally drastically reduces diseases commonly found in conventional exploitative animal production systems. This reduces our production costs. All of our housing for livestock is moveable, this also helps us to reduce disease build up. With livestock, as with crop production, the emphasis is on prevention. Good husbandry and continual observation are key. Raising happy/healthy animals is really a pleasure.
Sunday 7 August 2011
Free Range Pigs
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Our recent addition to the livestock section has been the introduction of a free-range pig production system to complement the dry-land production system. The Pigs are given constant access to pasture and help to cycle nutrients back to the fields for next years’ crop. We bought a pregnant Berkshire sow from Kafue Fisheries, a neighboring farm. The litter is half Berkshire half Landrace. Feeding is kept simple and the pigs are feed with organic maize on the cob and organic roasted soya beans with some mineral supplements. They are given a choice feeding ration like all the other stock on the farm so we can take advantage of the natural ability of the pig to find some of its own food from range.
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Free Range Chicken/ banana system
Free range hybrid chickens raised from day old a given free range under the conopy of bananas. The chickens provide manure and weed control for the bananas and the bananas provide shelter from flying predators and the sun, and the insects in the banana residues and in the soil, as well as weeds, provide extra food for the chickens.
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