Up until 100 years ago most livestock food was grown on the farm. We utilize mineral supplements because the diversity of our feed is so minimal. We need to get back to a good balance of grasses and forbs or "weeds" in our forages and hays. We also need to include food from trees and shrubs. Woodies are a great way to feed livestock while retaining large quantities of bio-matter. Roots, kale and squash can also add to the mix of vitamins and minerals. If we produce all our own livestock food, then our transportation costs become nil. If we can do without mineral supplement blocks, then our meat becomes truly organic. I realize that our climate may not seem ideal, but the British Isles have a very similar climate and they've been producing livestock "organically" for thousands of years.
Ideally multiple species of stock should be short term rotationally grazed . Using multiple species of livestock can mean less disease and parasites, as well as utilizing a greater variety of food plants, thus leaving less weeds to deal with. Having a greater variety of plants means more vitamins and minerals in the diet. There are more edible materials over a longer season with diversity. Being diverse, the plants can utilize a wider range of nutrients and depths in the soil. In a polyculture the overall yield of any one species is lowered as compared to a monoculture, but the overall yield in total, and disease resistance are increased. Fields should be just big enough for each group to finish in one or 2 days. Ideally you want them to eat everything edible but not kill their favourites by overgrazing them. They should also eat much of the stuff that is edible, but less palatable before being moved to the next mini field.
Sheep, cattle, goats and horses can all graze together unless the cattle are aggressive and have horns . They can be followed by poultry. Chickens will scratch up and scatter the feces of their predecessors in the field in search of bugs and grains. As a side benefit this reduces the chances of diseases or intestinal pests staying in the field. Pigs can be used to "rototill" or plow an area in need of renewal or rotation. Or they can follow the hooved group in fast rotations. They should not be grazed with the poultry. Pigs will eat chickens. They, like us, are omnivores. Each species prefers different food plants. Thus few species of "weeds" will be left big enough to shade out their more desirable neighbours.
Electric mesh fencing seems ideal except for the plastic and having to have electricity. Even the pigs and goats will respect it. Page wire works well, if properly installed for most of the livestock, but chicken wire may need to be installed for the poultry and baby pigs. This is also expensive to put in. Woven wattle would work well, and cost little or nothing, but be labour intensive. Split rail can work well though goats could probably climb it, and it's expensive unless you have your own source of rails. For the poultry you will need portable housing for the nights, egg collection, and predator prevention. You may also have to provide things to hide from hawks and eagles under. 2 pallets made into an A frame, or dead but very bushy shrubs scattered through the days grazing area should help.
Utilize those grasses grown locally for pastures and forage. Here that could be canary reed grass, orchard grass, redtop, and fescues. Legumes should be part of the mixture, both for nitrogen fixation as well as for high protein forage. Alfalfa and clovers are usually used. Forbs will also bring nutrients up for the grasses, and carry a wide range of nutrients and nutritional medicinals for the stock. Some forbs to include are: stinging nettles, yarrow, wild strawberry, chicory, dandelion, plantain, chickweed, oxeye daisy[also known as shastas] , and, of course, comfrey. Comfrey can be up to 40% of the animals diet with no harm, and will provide much needed protein as well as being a source of healing. My understanding is that the "bocking 4" strain of comfrey has the best stock food value, as well as being sterile, so it's not self seeding and can only be spread by root cuttings. Besides food and important micronutrients, as well as being medicinal for some of the animals, these herbs also attract beneficial insects, help the other plants to grow well, assist in decomposition of dead bio matter, bring other nutrients into the humus available to the grasses, and increase total yield of edible plants per acre.
Animals also get food, medicinals and trace nutrients from shrubs and trees growing in fields and fencerows. Apples, plums, pears, and cherries are happily eaten by most stock when they fall, and low hanging branches and summer prunings can be browsed by many animals. Alders are nitrogenous, easy to grow here, and we should be able to coppice them for firewood. Poplars can be coppiced and fed, as can willows which can also be pollarded. Willows and hazels can be used to make wattle or basketry. My guess is that the maple, which will coppice, and provides a thin sugar syrup, is also edible to some of these animals. Red cedar is also browse and a medicinal. The eleagnus species [autumn olive, goumi, and Russian olive] are also nitrogenous, and have edible fruits. In the southern states mulberries, persimmons and pawpaws are used as self serve stock foods, and produce over a fairly long period. They are also edible for humans. Hawthorns, raspberries, roses, blackberries, elderberries, and wild cherries provide food for wild birds, as well as berries, medicinals and browse for the livestock. Nut trees can also be a great source of livestock food. Traditionally chestnuts and acorns have been grown for livestock, especially pigs. Chinquapins have a small nut suited for birds. Hazelnuts can be browsed and the nuts provide proteins and fats. Any other edible nut or fruit tree that will bear a crop in your area can be used as stock food.
Things that historically have been used to feed stock, but have gone out of fashion, are things we think of as vegetables. Kale can be grown as a winter graze. Pumpkins, squash, carrots, turnips, beets, potatoes and parsnips can all provide some of the winter nutrients. Some sources say that potatoes are best cooked. All vegetables are best chopped. Mangels are a huge type of beet grown as livestock food. One source, but only that one, says that they must be dug and stored for 6 weeks before feeding to cattle. Cornstalks, grain stubble, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, quinoa and amaranth stalks and post harvest gardens can all be grazed in the field. Many of the common garden weeds are relished by livestock, like chickweed, pigweed and lambs quarters. Milk can be off flavoured by the cabbage/turnip family, as well as by alliums [garlic, onions], mustards, and some weeds. There are heirloom lettuces that were grown as chicken feed. Check out www.prseeds.ca for seeds of Mangels, chicken lettuce and more. Extra milk or whey has often been fed to calves, chickens and pigs. Nettles, chamomile, seaweed, calendula, dandelion leaves, raspberry leaves, strawberry leaves, and other nutritional and medicinal herbs can be added dry to winter cattle feed to increase micronutrients and herd health. Seaweed can provide nutrients and salt.
An overwintered green feed hay could include oats, wheat, rye, and Austrian field peas, cut when heading out. This could be followed by a kale crop to be grazed during the winter. Comfrey also makes good hay but is problematic to dry. Alfalfa, clover or any good forage mixture will also make great hay if cut when the majority of the crop is starting to bloom. In the British Isles they do a process called fogging off occasionally. This consists of letting hay grow so that it is near it's peak when the cold season arrives, and letting the livestock graze it as standing hay . This makes for less work, but probably more gets trampled into the mud .
Hardy heirloom breeds graze and browse best. Canadian horses, that's an actual breed, were bred to live off the land by themselves during Quebec winters. Kerry, Dexter, Devon and highland cattle are rugged breeds from the British isles. The Canadienne was bred in Quebec for it's foraging ability as well as for milk. Many breeds of sheep and goats are very adaptable to tougher conditions. Katahdin is a hair sheep that forages well and can deal with humidity with less pest problems than most sheep. Geese and muscovies can get almost all they need from grazing. Breeds of chickens that range well include Brahmas, Cornish, cochins, and most bantams. The chantecler, a canadian breed, tolerates cold well. There are heirloom turkey breeds that free range very well, and are smarter than the big breasted boobies. There are also still wild turkeys that will survive wild in Manitoba, so they should be fine here if the moisture isn't too much for them. All these produce less breast meat, but, because of their foraging it has greater nutritional value. There are also Berkshire, large black and Tamworth pig breeds that free range well. Horses and goats browse most, but many of the "wilder" breeds of cattle and sheep can utilize nutrients from browsing.
So, go ahead And try some of this, all we have to lose is our dependence on chemically produced food transported over huge distances
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