ANIMAL DIVERSITY IN KNF SYSTEMS

ANIMAL DIVERSITY IN KNF SYSTEMS

Grazing Geese

We have explored how animals can take weeds, kitchen, yard, and crop waste and turn it into food, fiber, and fertility. We have also explored how different animals can help with different land needs. Another important factor to consider is animal diversity.

Different Diets

Animal diversity is important for multiple reasons. The first reason we have already covered is that different animals eat different things. Having more than one type of animal means more organic material can be recycled from potential waste products back into fertility.

Different Jobs

We also looked at how different animals can perform different functions. Chickens and ducks are both birds and can both control pests. However, they are better at controlling different pests at different times of day and have different effects on the land, chicken scratching, verses duckbill aeration.

Let's explore this idea a little deeper by looking at grazing and browsing animals: cattle, sheep, goats, and horses.

Different grazing animals have different teeth and prefer to eat different vegetation in different ways. On one property, I was running cattle, sheep, and horses. The land was overgrown with Guinea grass and Napier grass, both high-protein grasses but both very tall, especially Napier, which was growing taller than the house roof.

Cattle are big animals and can push their way through thick, tall grass. The sheep could not, and the horses would not. Cattle were the best at breaking open a new grazing area. However, they would not eat everything down and tended to build trails rather than pastures. In the wild, animals like cattle move slowly and constantly, stopping sometimes to chew their cud and only running when chased.

Horses like to eat grass to the ground. If you like a well-trimmed golf course look, horses will take you there and maintain it. However, they do get carried away and will eat grass down to the dirt, so they must be moved before they kill the grass. In the wild, they are fast-running animals that love to run and are not meant to stay in one place very long.

Sheep are small for grazers and not good at trailblazing. They do not have the teeth to eat big clumps of grass. They are better at keeping down pasture than clearing it, but will not eat the grass to death like horses. They can eat some weeds, like fireweed, that will kill horses and cattle and have been used on the Big Island of Hawaii to clear pastureland of invasive toxic weeds so that cattle and horses can be put back on the pastures. However, sheep won’t eat everything.

On my tea farm, I mowed the pastures regularly, using the grass clippings in the barn to feed the Inoculated Deep Litter System. I simply put a big grass catcher on the back of my tractor when I mowed. By mowing I made sure weeds the sheep wouldn’t eat didn’t proliferate, like large clumping grasses. They did, nicely enough, eliminate the thorny mimosa, so I was hopeful they would control the thorny amaranth on the other property. Sadly, they did not.

Another advantage of sheep is they don’t need much water. I provide water for my sheep, but they rarely drink it.

In the wild, sheep are selective grazers. They often choose the most nutritious plants available, preferring to graze on young, tender vegetation when possible. They roam over large areas, allowing vegetation to recover between grazing periods.

Goats are not one of my favorite animals, although the kids are very fun to watch. They are smart and can be highly destructive if not controlled properly. However, since they are considered browsers rather than grazers, they do eat a wider variety of vegetation. They are not safe around vegetable gardens or orchards.

They will often girdle trees, which kills them. If they don’t girdle trees, they can still inhibit the growth of the trees they chew on. Many of my trees were killed and severely damaged by my neighbor’s goats. His goats would wait until they saw me leave, then hop through any fence weakness they could find and have lunch in my orchard. 

However, they are good at eating many of the plants left behind by cattle, sheep, and horses. They will not eat everything, and you still may need to mow or otherwise control the few things they won’t eat, at least until you have an established and balanced ecosystem that naturally eliminates pasture pests.

In the wild, goats are known for their ability to graze on a wide variety of plants, including grasses, shrubs, leaves, and even bark. By diversifying their diet, they avoid over-reliance on a single plant species, which helps maintain the overall health of the ecosystem. They practice seasonal and vertical migration. This movement helps prevent long-term damage. Goats have a natural ability to sense the health of vegetation. If a particular area is becoming overgrazed, they move on to a better area, allowing the overgrazed area to recover.

Browsing and Grazing: They alternate between browsing (feeding on leaves, shrubs, and trees) and grazing (feeding on grasses and low-lying vegetation). This alternation helps prevent the overuse of any single type of vegetation.