Cover cropping where animals free graze

Animal Options
#1

I’m looking at experimenting with pigeon peas and jack beans as a gmcc in sandy soil. However, as with many places, there’s huge animal pressure. Around the end of December, the herders send in their animals. By the time the rains come in June, there is generally nothing left. I’ve seen goats, camels, and the like happily munching on neem leaves in town, and in the fields, the goats will eat Calotropis procera. Naturally, I’m concerned about what this means for my unfenced rented land. The two ideas I have are

  1. spraying manure water on the plants once a month as Dov mentioned in “Agricultural Prosperity in Dryland Africa”, but
  2. I’d rather cut and drop the mulch in early January. While I realize that a lot of the N would be burned off by the sun by the time rainy season arrives, my hope is that the termites would help decompose a good chunk and bring it into the ground. I’ve found one study out of West Africa saying basically “manure without termites is ineffective” and I’m wondering if they help “bank” N and other nutrients in the soil.

Some thoughts from another network member are:

The question of how to safeguard OM and the associated nutrients from grazers in the Sahel is a good one. There are several options, but which one is most appropriate depends on circumstances. Fencing, chop and drop (to make less attractive to grazers and for termites to bank), intensive grazing with associated manure drop, stocking as mulch or compost, or using tall perennials/trees as a source of chop-and-drop mulch for the rainy season are a few that come to mind.

In our particular context, we’ve chosen fencing. As we don’t have livestock yet, we then trade the protected OM for manure late in the dry season, which helps out the neighbors and helps us with decomposition. It might be possible to employ a similar strategy by bringing in a large herd after the rainy season, and concentrating it in place long enough that most of the OM is turned into manure or flattened into contact with the ground for termites to access.

What do you do in your area to protect crops from roaming grazers?

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#2

I grow jackbean and pigeon pea in the wet tropics. Both are fragile and easily damaged by animals.
There are some selections of pigeon pea that will 5m tall with 50-75mm trunk (yellow flower front red back- flatish mid brown seed) and (brown speckled round beige seed)
I suggest you explore Phasey bean (Macroptilium lathyroides) Phasey bean (Macroptilium lathyroides) | Feedipedia to use as well.

#3

How much land do you have? Fencing would be the best way to keep animals off, but that may not be feasible on a larger piece of land (or even a small one). Since you are in a free-grazing culture, that last thought might be the way to go. Aside from manure, animals will trample a good amount of organic matter into the ground. That’s less chop and drop work for you, and you get manure and urine in place of the leaf matter that the animals eat. Ideally, you could fence in your land and have control over when and for how long they graze your field.
The termites might be a good solution too, but since you’re around livestock anyway, you could make use of them and let the termites break down the manure and what’s left of the plants.

#4

There is also the living fence options using hedge laying to get the fence established quickly. You can use a temporary fence barrier to back up the establishment of the living fence and move it to another location to expand the area protected once your living fence is established. You can use pretty much any type of torn tree but an invasive species will be problematic for everyone. You can also back up your living fence with a trained dog that drives off animals. Make sure the dog does not take food from strangers or it will be poisoned. If you are using manure you get fertilizer benefit and your manure should be more concentrated on the outside edge and be applied often. My living fence article can be found by a search in the ECHO site.

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