TheLivingShadow
Location: Morocco
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keeping animals away
Putting up a fence or having a dog to guard a terrain involves commitment and resources that aren't always (quickly) arranged. There are VAST areas that mainstream farmers ignore because they are far from commonly used water sources. They are ALSO ignored because the locals know from experience that if you try to use them, the local goats and sheep will destroy your efforts. Off-grid can be easy, independent, but also free of charge. These vast ignored and unutilized areas now lie barren and worthless. They supply the local livestock a few new leaves in Spring, if even that. They are a resource that any intelligent and informed person can access without creating envy or demands of payment. All that's necessary is paying homage to the local livestock...
Goats and sheep are terrible and they're wonderful...
The basis for ley farming is having animals graze a pasture. It creates the best soil easily, cheaply, and quickly.
What one tends to see in arid climates, however, is that entire regions are GRAZED TO DEATH by the locals with their free-roaming herds. Local flora can't deal with the onslaught and the entire environment suffers. Desertification causes annual rains to just wash away because the soil can't hold on to it. This is explained in detail in the documentary Hope In A Changing Climate.
If you just go out and start planting seeds somewhere in some hills where no one lives and that no one cares about, your efforts will make the local herds very happy. They may not come by daily but when they do come by, months of growing, planning, and engineering may be demolished in minutes.
Local livestock are an important consideration when dealing with offgrid life. They are not entirely a problem. In fact, ley farming in mind, they can be very helpful. They must be managed and there are ways of doing this that don't entail putting up barb-wired fences and such. There are ways that simply employ intelligence.
Goats can reach places that are very hard to get to. They may even reach them more easily and quickly than a man can. However, goats are not monkeys. It's possible to cordon off an area so it's only accessible for people. Assuming there aren't too many (too large) access points to an area [like in a rocky valley], a few well-placed (small) walls or footholds knocked away could do wonders.
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7/12/2013, 10:00 am
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TheLivingShadow
Location: Morocco
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plants animals won't eat
Goats won't eat:
- Mullein
- Wild Sage Grass
- Certain varieties of Nightshade
- Russian Knapweed (Russian Knapweed is known to be toxic to horses).
- Oregon Grape
- Salal
goatworld.com
Also:
- ash
- white birch
- Lantana
- Indian Paint Brush
- Little Bluestem
I remember reading somewhere that the one plant deer won't touch is lavender.
This suggests that goats, too, are unlikely to eat it.
According to the above, the following will make goats sick or at least be uninvitational to them:
- Azalea
- Rhododendron
- Black Locust
- Boxwood
- Broccoli
- Butter cup/Crowfoot
- cabbage
- Common/Black Nightshade
- Buffulo Bur
- Horse Nettle
- Corn Cockle
- Daffodils
- Delfiniums/Larkspurs
- Dogbane
- Elderberry
- Foxglove/Digitalis
- Garlic Mustard
- Holly
- Horse Chestnut/Buckeye
- Jimsonweed/Downy Thornapple/Devils Trumpet/Angels Trumpet
- Latana/Verbena
- Lilies
- Lupine
- Milkweed
- Mustard
- Oleander
- Sorghum
- Turnip
- Wild/Black/Choke Cherry
- Yarrow
Last edited by TheLivingShadow, 7/4/2014, 12:07 pm
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7/12/2013, 10:02 am
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TheLivingShadow
Location: Morocco
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predator protection
Apparently donkeys and llamas make a good addition to a herd of goats and/or sheep. Cattle defend themselves well (and can protect sheep or goats, as well) against most predators so they don't need donkeys.
The guard donkey
Controlling the coyote population - BBC wildlife
Donkey on guard
Also see this post on livestock guardian animals at permies.com
Last edited by TheLivingShadow, 10/5/2014, 5:48 am
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5/28/2014, 12:14 pm
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TheLivingShadow
Location: Morocco
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repel bugs
Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.
Soak orange peels in vinegar for two weeks in a sealed mason jar. Then pour the vinegar into a spray bottle. Use for cleaning or bug spray. This is great for ants!
Last edited by TheLivingShadow, 11/26/2014, 10:06 am
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9/9/2014, 8:06 pm
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TheLivingShadow
Location: Morocco
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repelling animals
Protecting trees from cows
Put a sandbag over the top of the tree and tie a rope over the bottom of the bag.
Sepp Holzer's bone sauce
since animals had nibbled at the bark so much, he called these trees "standing dead." Sepp then told us about how he makes a sort of bone sauce that he puts on trees and will keep the animals from nibbling the trees forever [decades].
First you start with a cast iron kettle and bury it a bit and put a cup of water in the bottom. Then fill another kettle with bones, put a screen over it and then plop the bone kettle upside down on the other kettle. Then pack clay around the edges to make a good seal. Then Pile up some dirt and build a big fire over the whole thing. Keep the fire going for an hour or two and then let it sit for a day. Then collect the nasty gunk from the bottom. Apparently this smells awful. Smear a little of this around the trunk of any tree and animals won't ever touch that tree.
Youtube tutorial
Lavender plants are low but thick growing shrubs; it's conceivable that one might plant baby agave among them, thereby protecting them from goat interest and access. As soon as the agave are bigger, they'll have hard sharp thorns that will deter goats from eating them. As soon as they're big, they will form an effective barrier against goats.
Some sheep, however, are known to eat lavender, as well as other usually considered unpalatable plants. Possibly a combination of plants will be needed to form an imprenatrable barrier to the domestic and wild fauna wherever you are.
Agave lechuguilla is known to be toxic and is found in Texas, New Mexico and northern Mexico. Sometimes it is planted as an ornamental. It is known to sicken sheep, goats, occasionally cattle but not horses.
Agave Tequilana can be used for harvesting aquamiel and the sap from the root for making tequila [against parasites]. Agave spikes are extremely strong and sharp and do keep goats at bay once the plants are big enough. Agave are used along the edges of terraces for this reason.
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8/20/2015, 9:14 am
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