Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: peanuts, sorghum (milo)
- Animals: swine
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage, feed formulation, feed rations, grazing - rotational
- Crop Production: multiple cropping
- Education and Training: farmer to farmer
- Farm Business Management: feasibility study
- Production Systems: organic agriculture, integrated crop and livestock systems
Summary:
A forage system for pasture raised swine is difficult but still a possibility. Heavy deer population destroyed our peanut crop both years of the project. A forage system (at least in my area) must include significant and effective efforts to prevent crop failure when the deer eat all the tops off all the peanuts in any stage of growth.
Introduction
The proposed system for forage crop system remain largely untried. Attempts to raise the crops succeeded only as far as planting and cultivating.
Project objectives:
Groups of pigs were farrowed and tagged both years. Overlapping crop plantings of milo and peanuts were made. Early peanut planting dates resulted in good germination but very slow growth. Peanut growth improved as temperature increased but were all ultimately devistated by heavy deer pressure.