Integrated livestock

WARC taps into local knowledge to study integrated livestock

AMY hUTTON WARC lIvEsTOCK REsEARCh AND lOCAl fOOD COORDINATOR

Expanding crop production enterprises by incorporating livestock is a tried and true method for diversifying farm income and conserving resources.

In the Bitterroot, livestock have been integrated into crop production systems for most of our agriculture history, contributing soil fertility, residue breakdown, and essential weed control to our farm systems. However, integrated systems like these come with unique risks and burdens including crop damage, pathogen exposure, high labor demands, and usually some unexpected chaos!

I experienced a bit too much of that chaos myself when I started dreaming up a new research project three seasons ago. After incorporating my own sheep, poultry, and hogs into various fruit and vegetable production systems over the years, I had a taste of the complexities at play and the questions needing answers.

I wanted to imitate the efficiency of a healthy ecosystem on my farm: plant waste feeding animals, animal waste feeding plants, and livestock doing the work of weeding and fertilizing instead of me. But far too often the worst weeds were left untouched, while hogs uprooted the tree guards or the goats clamored over them, and that one hen always found her way out of the fallow plot and into the just-seeded one. Just how

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many ways can one waterer manage to leak, and is there a single predator on this green earth who isn’t eating my broilers?

Luckily there are lots of techniques, tricks, and tools created to overcome these sorts of obstacles, and resourceful farmers all around the Bitterroot are refining and improving upon them every season. Unfortunately, not many of us have the time to write up our findings and get the word out, but that’s where resources like WARC and County Extension can help connect the dots to save farmers time and money. For the last two seasons at WARC, we have been exploring how farmers are answering these challenges while using study trials to investigate the effects of livestock on food safety, weed control, and soil health within fruit and vegetable production.

The primary focus of our research is managing the pathogen risk posed by integrated fresh manure in close proximity to fresh produce, and our results have been encouraging. Removing all animals from crop production areas three, six, or even nine months before harvest can provide a simple solution to food safety concerns, and it is the solution recommended by most regulatory agencies like the National Organic Program.

However, maintaining Photos courtesy Western ag research center such a long-time-interval In the Bitterroot, livestock have been integrated into crop production disrupts most livestock systems for most of our agriculture history, contributing soil fertility, management strategies and residue breakdown, and essential weed control to our farm systems. also negates many weed and pest control benefits. I want my sheep grazing when the However, integrated systems like these come with unique risks and burdens including crop damage, pathogen exposure, high labor demands, and usually some unexpected chaos! weeds are growing, I want my poultry foraging when the bugs are hopping, and I want to bring them all in from the back orchard before there is significant snow and ice to contend with!

By collecting bacteria samples in weekly time intervals, we have been able to track pathogen numbers in our three types of orchard systems. Trends across our study plots show bacteria numbers rising in the first two weeks after manure is deposited and then dropping off quickly in the following two to four weeks. While our sample sizes and number of replications are not nearly large enough to extrapolate to other Bitterroot orchards and farms with any level of certainty, these promising trends do indicate that it is possible to safely integrate livestock during the growing season. Managing for optimal animal health with balanced nutrition, frequent pasture rotations, and ample space, shelter, and shade all reduces the chances of introducing problematic species of bacteria in the first place. Additional factors that appear to affect pathogen persistence include: soil organic matter, ground cover (bare soil or vegetated), and irrigation type (drip, spray, or flood). If you have, or are hoping to create, an integrated livestock system on your farm or ranch, we would love to hear from you! We love working with Bitterroot producers on testing for pathogens, planning new enterprises, and trouble-shooting farm problems. It is also very helpful to hear about your successes and innovations, so please get in contact if you have any suggestions! Learn more on our website or contact our project manager Amy at amy.hutton1@montana.edu. Website link: https://agresearch.montana.edu/warc/ research_current/integrated-livestock/index.html AG