chickens & cattle

[plantcity]

Is it ok to raise chickens around cattle? I heard that cattle can get sick from chicken diseases.

 

[gritsar]

Our pastures are leased to a neighbor for his cattle to graze on. This neighbor is also a long time commercial chicken farmer.
There's never been even a hint of trouble or illness from them being raised on the same land.

The biggest problem I run into is 1) the cows like to eat the litter off the coop floor and will stick their heads in pop door to do it,
2) occasionally a young heifer will decide it's great fun to chase my chickens and scatter them to heck and back.

 

[eggbuster]

Absolutely. Very good arrangement all around for pastures, cattle, and chickens. As Gritsar said, the biggest problem is keeping the cows out of the chicken coop or rubbing the crap out of the tractors. Cattle also make for more predator protection as well since they won't tolerate coyotes ect...around their calves. I have a horse that thinks chickens are great fun to stomp so I cannot keep chickens in the horse pasture as planned.

 

[kristen2678]

Google Polyface Farm in VA. They rotate their cattle and chickens on pasture. The cows eat the grass and then obviously poop. They move the cows to another pasture and send in the chickens to spread the manure and eat the bugs eating the manure. The grass grows back after being fertilized by both chicken and cow poop and the cycle starts again.