One of the critical things we're trying to do is develop sensible animal feed formulations based on what grows *here* really well. Because we understand that there's a caloric issue: our limiting factor is animal feed, because the animal manure is the primary thing helping us to restore our native nitrogen cycles and grow food. Roots in the ground mean little if we can't get those roots going in the first place, and we need all of it for any of this to work.

There are more things that grow here really well that animals can easily convert to calories than us, like saltbrush, bromegrass, and bermudagrass (the latter are both invasive grasses) and many that both animals and humans benefit from like ricegrass (where cellulose-digesting animals can eat the grass and humans can eat the seedheads). Prickly pear cacti are a good source of vitamins, water, and other good stuff but require processing before feeding out, though they have a place in this too in my mind. The wild cottontails and jackrabbits eat young trees, and our rabbits can convert creosote and mesquite prunings to meat, which is crazy.

When we can extend our cultivable area beyond the initial dense gardens, the grasses and wildflowers that already grow here can establish themselves better under shade and start to develop a root mat that can stabilize the soil and make the land less hydrophobic. We hope this will have measurable effects on the groundwater levels over time as layers of root systems help bring the water back down into the earth rather than leaving it to run off and evaporate as it currently does. Establishing wildlands with savannah grasses, trees, cacti, and windbreak to preserve the moisture we can carefully and intensively graze a few small ruminants (NOT goats) to consume what we can't and mimick the herbivores that are supposed to engage in trample-eat-urinate-manure-move cycles to push the roots deeper - at that point we'll be moving into a kind of savannah version of the typical regenerative ag that folks like Savory have been championing, and which does really work once you get things growing season after season.

My guess is for the long term future all animals will be cut-and-carry fed through the summer for the land to rest in the dry season and this means probably planning to only keep breeding stock for this season, and a minimal chicken flock to manage for pests (usually these are worse in the summer than winter, even here).

I want to go into this more when there's more testing behind it and documented success. All I can say is right now we're making huge strides producing food here and moving towards a closed loop system faster than I thought possible. Still, ecological time is slow, so we must weather the next few years in order to prove this all!

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAgriculture #Permaculture #ClosedCycle #ClosedLoopFarming #Land #Regeneration #ClimateJustice #FoodSovereignty