“After the cows were done in one pasture, the chicken cages were rolled in. “

I read recently about an experiment in permaculture, which is the science of making food production ecologically sustainable. The Chinese have been making an art of it for thousands of years, with complicated interlocking cultivation systems, where the waste from one part is always recycled in some other part.

In this system, chickens were kept in small flocks in 20×20 foot covered cages. The cages were on wheels. Small herds of cows were also kept, in constant rotation among many small pastures. After the cows were done in one pasture, the chicken cages were rolled in. The chickens broke the cow patties apart looking for bugs, which were plentiful. This allowed the cow manure to break down faster, resulting in quicker regrowth of the grass, as well as lower rates of disease among the cows. The chickens were healthier as well, and got to run about and hunt for bugs, which if I were a chicken, I would vastly prefer to living in some overcrowded factory. Overall, the production of both beef and chicken increased dramatically over other organic ranching methods, putting it on a par with non-organic methods.

The inventor of the system based the idea off of the fact that in nature, herds of wild ungulates are always followed by flocks of birds. Pretty clever, eh? Another thing: you don’t need a robot chicken catcher, you just wheel the cage up to the slaughterhouse and pull the chickens in with a net.

- spun @ SlashDot: Link.

Comments from SlashDot readers

Uh, your forgetting the other benefit the chinese animal husbandry has brought to our world: a fresh stream of animal hosted viruses (note to the pedantic: virii, as a word, sucks balls) to infect our biped bodies and boost our immune systems. If we don’t choke on our own mucus first.