Completely Self sufficient systems

[U_Stormcrow]

I have foot tall raised beds - the nearby trees "contaminate" the beds by sending shoots off their roots from below, draining the bed of nutrients. (I don't blame them) Without the shade offered by the tree 20', 30' away thru part of the day, the top incho of soil becomes very dry, very rapidly.

"Best" soil on my property is probably the small area of loose sands where I had my septic field located - I'll let you know in a few years - I'm slowly terracing my way uphill from it to capture loose sand and worn clay as the weather washes them off the hill top.

 

[saysfaa]

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Landcaster.

I learned a lot of concepts and about practical application that I can apply even though my place isn't close to dry. Eh, most of the time.

So, worth checking out for people thinking about conservation or self sufficiency whatever their climate.

 

[tmarsh83]

Several years ago, i started keeping garden pigs.

We always had a garden. Anyone that has kept a garden knows that more of it doesn't get used than does. I think that usually applies to the fruits of our labor, but the sheer tonnage of crops versus what ends up in a pan or a can is huge. So here was my plan.

Raise feeder pigs to coincide with the rise and fall of the annual garden. I get the pigs a bit later than the pigs that go to the county fair, and my target butcher date is about this time of year, roughly a month after our garden has completely exhausted itself.

In the course of the growing season any produce that doesn't work for my table or storage, goes to the swine. Then, as the garden phases out, i use electric net fencing to give them access to portions of the garden, turning the soil as they go.

By the time the year is over, they've completely turned my garden over. Weeds have been decimated. Fertilizer spread. And with the days that are left, it's too cold for grass or weeds to establish themselves. The garden is more ready for spring every passing year.

It's not a perfect system, but for semi-pastured pork i'm getting feed conversions just over 4. Commercial operations shoot for about 3.5.

I'll take that....

 

[My Bagurks]

I had a piece of land that’s I was eyeing up for a garden for a number of years. Dug it in a few spots and found horrible hard clay. Didn’t drain, hard as a rock, and nothing but crab grass survived.
i saved all the coop bedding for a few months and just piled it up off to the side.
I fenced off about a 20x75ft section and spread the pile of bedding and few bales of hay over the whole thing in the fall.
I let that sit. Then in the early spring I had a neighbor come and disk the whole section, breaking everything up and mixing in what I added.
When it came time to plant, I bought 2 yards of local compost. I’d break up the ground in a spot or a row, mound up compost on top and put my plants/seeds down. The bottom of the transplant would actually be on top of the original dirt.
i mulched with grass and leaves from my property in between the mounds and around the plants. What I ended up with was an amazingly fertile area that produced more than I could have expected. Tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, squash, sunflowers, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, onion, and several herbs.
I only did annuals to start and when the growing season was done, I ran it all over with the mower and left it all there.
the following year, I couldn’t believe how well my plants did.
Took some work and the first year was just to add biomass to the soil, but oh man is it a healthy patch now. I can stick my hand 6 inches into the dirt where before it all, I’d fight a shovel to get 2 inches down.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

My self-sufficient chicken setup:

Open coop door. Leave open forever. Chickens fend for themselves.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

As for cattle: put up fence over large field with quality grass with natural water source. Turn out cattle. The end.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

@My Bagurks - Isn’t it simply amazing what adding a big dose of organic material can do to soil?

If I didn’t know it was science I’d think it was magic!

 

[3KillerBs]

My self-sufficient chicken setup:

Open coop door. Leave open forever. Chickens fend for themselves.

Which works well in areas with an ecology capable of supporting feral chickens with chicken breeds that are good foragers.

Not so much in my area, where the ecology is considered "impoverished" since the lousy soil causes a lack of species diversity.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Which works well in areas with an ecology capable of supporting feral chickens with chicken breeds that are good foragers.

Not so much in my area, where the ecology is considered "impoverished" since the lousy soil causes a lack of species diversity.

I wholeheartedly agree, success of keeping livestock with minimal human upkeep is habitat-specific and dependent. That may mean a person’s self-sufficient farming plan may be founded upon choosing a location or property that makes self-sufficient farming possible. A person has to do one of two things, either tailor their land selection to the farming they want to do or tailor their farming to the land that they have. And also be realistic that not all properties suit themselves for any sort of self-sufficient farming.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

My self-sufficient chicken setup:

Open coop door. Leave open forever. Chickens fend for themselves.

As for cattle: put up fence over large field with quality grass with natural water source. Turn out cattle. The end.

Have both of these systems going on our property. However we buy chicken feed.