Diversity is Not Enough

Several years ago I came to the conclusion that our farm needed to become more diversified. In my quest for a diversity I made a few mistakes that I would like to share. The first thing I did was put sheep up on the hill. My parents then added a meat goat herd down on the main farm. Both of these additions produced a marketable product. We sold lamb and wool and kid goats. The main problem was, and I didn't really realize it until I read Family Friendly Farming, was that these enterprises were competing against each other and the dairy. They all needed the same pastures, hay, and grain that the cows needed. When hay got short the sheep and goats were robbing the main income producers of the most important input. The goats were in a barn that could be used for calves and the sheep were testing my ability to do 3 things at once. What was ment to help our farm was really hurting it. The sheep left 2 years ago and the last of the meat goats left this year. When Herrick loaned me Salatins book(which I will be returning shortly) I finally started to realize the fact that they were competing enterprises. As I read Joel's thoughts on complimentary enterprises, I had to shut the book and take a deep breath followed by a hearty "why didn't I think of that". Now I have grand plans for incorporating chickens into our dairy operation. Chickens like the short grass that the cows have grazed down. They eat fly larvae and scratch out the cow pies for better fertilizer. They work with the cows and the cows benefit from them. What a concept! I am presently using chickens to prepare future garden spots for market produce. I was prepared to go full bore with meat birds this year. However, when I got the opportunity to go to Salatin's this year I decided to just raise some for ourselves this year. Part of the money we had to buy chickens will pay for our trip and I also want to see the Joel's system in action before I fly off half cocked into something new. We have raised pastured broilers in "chicken tractors" before but I'm more interested in what he has to say about marketing. I also have decided that I need to expand my egg sales before I start anything new. Right now we have more eggs than we are selling. This next week we will be getting some Cornish rock crosses, a smaller box than we had originally planned.