Hi....most of you are probably fortunate enuff not to need to deal with this, but, I own some desert land, and I'm e-corresponding with another desert hommesteader....I was wondering if anyone has ideas and web or other sources on desert/arid agriculture specifics, livestock most suitable to arid lands, and shelter and energy ideas for desert living?

Thanx

-- Guy Winton III (guyiii@home.com), July 19, 2000

Answers

Hi, Guy.

We live in Southeastern New Mexico, and moved onto five acres several months ago, starting from scratch. The county extension agent has been a BIG help in showing us how to plant trees, etc in our salty caliche soil. He told us the best types to plant, and how to water conservatively and effectively. Adobe and straw bale are great energy saving housing alternatives, and this area is very suited to wind and solar power (we have neither, but want both). We are working on livestock, but most any livestock can be successfully managed here. We have so many projects, so little time! Good luck!

-- Gina NM (inhock@pvtnetworks.net), July 20, 2000.

Check out http://desertusa.com/who/du_talk.html/ and it's home page and related pages. Have you ever considered growing cacti and other succulents commercially? If you might be interested e-mail me and I'll give you an address for a place that has cacti from seeds and seeds that are from around the world and I think pretty popular. Some are rare and endangered and grown from seeds and they have a permit for the endangered plants. I have some I'm growing just for fun.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), July 20, 2000.

Hi,

I found the following that may prove interesting or useful:

http://www.floweringdesert.com/

http://www.arashi.com/hypermail/ccpg/0124.html

http://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch02/firth/

Maybe not directly, but maybe in terms of ideas and terms & concepts to further research.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), July 20, 2000.

Although I have no experience with them, I went to a field day at one of the Virginia state universities a couple of years ago and they had a presentation on hair sheep. I had no idea what they were before I got there but was interested in learning about sheep so I went to the presentation. Turns out they are sheep that do not have wool but have hair similar to a goat's. In fact, to someone like me who doesn't know much about goats they look like goats. They are raised for meat and are very tolerant of desert conditions. They are the animals that you see a lot on television when they show some African countries and the people walking along the road with animals that look like goats. They are actually hair sheep. They were developed in the Caribean but are used in a lot of arid countries. You can also milk them and make cheese but they are primarily a meat animal. Hope this helps. I'm sure if you put hair sheep in the web search engine you'll find some hits. If all else fails try sheep and Virginia and you'll probably get the site for the school I went to. GL

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 26, 2000.