Animal raising on the integrated farm

This is an experimental mobile cage for the young turkeys, which will gobble up all kinds of unwanted weeds between the plants and trees of our farm.

A crucial point in our farming concept is the initiation of a self sustaining farming cycle. Remnants of the fruit and vegetable production can be used to feed farm animals, which produce in turn dung to fertilize our plants. Right now we try to list every possible kind of potential animal food and its nutrition value. The raising and breeding of animals is only worth the effort with cheap and easy feeding source of high quality available. In the commercial mass production of chicken, for example, it is only possible to feed these chicken hybrids with industrial nutrients to the price of at least 0.50 Euro per kilogram. These high production hybrids are ready to be slaughtered after only 45 days, but 80% of the profit must be invested in the only commercial feeds these hybrids were adapted to. Our goal is to produce our own animal feeds for around 0.10 Euro per kilogram. We will only use natural, local animal breeds, who may not be as productive as the hybrids but provide a much better taste, so restaurants and other customers will be interested. The fact is that because of our low costs we do not have to care about the lower productivity of the natural breeds. In the end we sell them for the same price, but with a higher quality! Another advantage of our conception is the keeping of animals of different ages. Again we aim to profit continuously instead of punctually, making us flexible and always competitive, and most of all independed from any of the industrial animal breeding companies and their unwanted associates.

A combination of barn and free range keeping is in our plan. That way we can use the empty spaces in between the calamansi lemon trees for our animals, when their canopy is fully developed and the stage of planting vegetables in between is already over. Most likely we'll start this one project with cows, pigs and turkeys. The demand from meat produced by local breeds is indeed very high. Also this local breeds are adapted to all kinds of diseases, weather events and other circumstances, other than the hybrid races that drop dead at the slightest wince of nature. Some of our neighbors are already imitating us and simultaniously we use the internet to check for new techniques and informations. When we start this project on our demonstration farm, it is crucial to be readily prepared against all kinds of impeding problems.

The local cattle is is very resistant, but it was not bred to give milk. These are for the production of meat only.

Since the 28. of March in.2010 our mobile cage with the turkeys is in use and it seems they all feel quite comfortable there.

The great mobile cage consists of 8 metal elements with 180 cm width each. The frame measures 5.4 x 1.8 meters. These modules have seperate connection points and can be arranged in any possible order. An old fisherman's net protects the cage against snakes, rats and other potentially dangerous animals. After one week passed the ground was completely cleared of any weeds and the cage could be moved further. additionally the animals were feed with farm- and kitchen leftovers. Our biggest turkeys amount to 1.8 kilograms, 100 days after they left their eggs. Currently some of our turkeys which are roaming freely on our family property have produced 20 new turkeys which we put into a well heated breeding cage during their first days. This is certainly not the end of our quest for the perfect breeding, but we have already managed to keep all of the young turkeys alive. seeing that they're still alive after 8 months and have about 6 kilograms weight each already, we are probably on the right track there.

How you can help: 1. Donations enforce the success of our projects on a wide scale. Even small donations mean a lot of help for us. 2. Up-to-date pictures and progress reports, feel free to comment here on our projects ! We gladly receive any helpful ideas and informations. It is crucial to the success of our many small projects!