Great input folks, I knew there’d be some useful experience here
We are shallow clay too, and very wet here (coastal north Cornwall), so your experiences are very helpful, Anke.
Yes, dairy/suckler cattle and sheep (natives and crosses.).
This is coming out of wanting to make the animals and veg-growing be more connected here, instead of me wanting my muck back on the fields (because that’s where the hay came from, so we’re depleting the fields if we don’t put the muck back) and the growers then buying in Council compost which contains all sorts of horrid things we would never knowingly bring onto our site!
. (Despite it being allowable under Soil Association rules, which frankly beggars belief.)
So Dan figured if he made green manures we could graze, he’d get some poop and or muck, as well as the benefits of the green manure itself. And as the green manure crop was additional input, I am happy for the equivalent amount of poop/muck to go back to the veg plot.
Field beans are an interesting idea. I’ve also wondered about fodder beet. But not sure that anything would be left to dig back in... or maybe we don’t mind, so long as enough muck repays the debt.
We still have the benefits of the over-winter ground cover.
Well done TAS, this is turning into a really interesting thread...