The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Grazing the Orchard

May 11th, 2015 · No Comments · Posted in farming

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It’s either feast or famine on the farm. When the ground is covered with snow, we long for a bit of green. But before you know it, we’ve got more grass than we need. The animals can’t eat it fast enough and I have to fire up the tractor and start mowing.

It’s always been my fantasy not having to mow the orchard. I hate steering the tractor around all those young trees, the danger of injuring them, compacting the soil. But I never seemed to get organized to the point where I could get my animals to do the job for me. Plus, you have to be careful which critters you let in there: The cow will eat the leaves right off the trees. Worse, the goats will strip the bark off the trunks, potentially killing everything in their path. Even the sheep will nosh on the bark if they get hungry enough.

Complicating matters is our rather relaxed attitude toward keeping all the different species together. I think the cow rather likes have the goats around. Her best buddy in the past was our boy goat, Tigger. The goats reciprocate and the sheep–well, the sheep seem to tolerate just about anything. This year I finally figured out a fencing scheme where, if I can separate the sheep from the other livestock in the morning, I can sneak them into the orchard and divert the cow, her calf and the goats in the opposite direction, toward the upper pasture. The orchard has permanent fencing around it, giving us about two acres to graze as long as the animals all cooperate.

So far, so good. In fact, the sheep seem to be getting used to the new routine–peeling off in the morning, spending the day roaming the orchard, moving back into the main paddock in the evening. Our five little lambs follow right along–or sometimes take the lead. Watching them race each other into the orchard, then back again, is pretty hilarious. Except we have one ramling who seems intent on visiting the laying hens, confined to an area of the orchard behind their own electric netting. Fortunately for this particular lamb, I haven’t turned on the juice to the chicken fence, cause he keeps getting caught in it. We hear his bleats for help all the way from the house and have to walk out to the orchard to untangle him.

I have to say, the sheep are doing a fine job of mowing the orchard. The momma sheep are eating like crazy and nursing their young. The lambs are frolicking and I’m feeling pretty smug about my newly acquired skills in livestock wrangling. I get about two minutes to ponder my good fortune before turning my attention to all the other work that needs to be done on the farm.

 

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