Market Farming

[Sojourner <sojournr AT missouri.org>]

Elizabeth Pike wrote:
> 
> Warning!  Pasture & fruit trees do not mix !!  Remember our last
> thread-e. coli?? 

If you're going to be afraid of e. coli, keeping your fruit trees out of
the pasture is not going to help you.  E. coli 0157 (the one that keeps
causing all the bad outbreaks via infected meat) is carried by dogs,
horses, deer, birds, and a plethora of other creatures including human
beings.

The only "solution" would seem to be to grow all your foods in a
greenhouse - or irradiate everything.

Please keep in mind that the chances of ever coming into contact with
dangerous strains of e coli are very low.  Factory farming, by
concentrating huge numbers of animals very close together, makes a very
very small risk much larger because of crowded and usually unsanitary
conditions.

One dairy cow, one or two calves, and less than a dozen sheep on 9 acres
of pasture are not the same sort of system at all.

Also, there seems to be evidence indicating that cattle and sheep that
forage for their food are much less at risk than grain fed animals. 
What's more, rotational grazing practices reduce contamination and
cross-contamination risks even further for all manner of pathogens and
parasites.

>  Besides livestock love fruit--ever seen a tree
> climbing goat ; ) ?? 

Personally, I wouldn't own a goat if you paid me.  And yes, the trees
will have to be protected until they get larger - but so will ANY trees
that I plant in the pasture.  It will help that the trees will predate
any livestock by probably a couple of years.  Even in the small orchard
area I put in, I will occassionally turn sheep and chickens in there to
clean up windfall fruit.

> We have 10 apple trees, 6 plum & 3 pear, all
> about 7-12 years old, some full size, some dwarf.   You'd wither & die
> waiting for them to shade you, including the full size ones. 

Definitely not my experience with apple trees.  I'm not looking for full
shade, as you would want for your house, but zones of light shade. 
Planting trees - any sort of trees - in pasture has a lot of benefits
for the pasture as a whole and for the animals that inhabit it,
including reduced loss of moisture due to transpiration, shade for the
animals (resulting in less stress and lower water needs for the animals
as well), an over all cooling effect for the area planted this way, and
other benefits.

My pasture is currently treeless and exposed to baking hot summer sun
from early morning until late in the evening.  I'm planning on planting
a variety of trees to change this situation, including willow oak, honey
locust, and yes, some fruit trees as well.

I especially want to experiment with fruit tree seedlings.  Sure, fruit
tree seedlings are going to be wildly variable, but heck, where's the
fun in life if you can't experiment?  Red Delicious came from a seedling
back in the 1870's.  Stark paid some guy $25,000 in the 50's for a Red
Delicious mutation that goes by the name "Starkrimson". now  Heirloom
trees frequently do come true to seed.

Planting a fruit tree from seed is like getting a surprise present. 
Don't like the fruit?  Cut it down eventually for the lumber.  Or use it
as grafting root stock for some more successful variety (and get some
grafting practice on something that doesn't matter if it dies).  In the
meantime there's shade and probably animal fodder as well right out
there in the pasture (sheep and chickens are very good at cleaning up
fallen fruit), and I've had an interesting time seeing what will come
up.  How can I lose? 

> They
> have a tendency to grow straight up without pruning to keep them
> manageable.   Deer love them!  Leaves, bark & all!

Pruning - well, my views on pruning are unconventional.  So we'll leave
that.  But how any tree grows depends on the variety - some apples are
quite spreading in habit.  Some are not.

As for deers, they aren't going to love my fruit trees any less if I
concentrate them all together in an orchard.  Deer love ANY newly
planted tree - but hopefully between my dogs and keeping the new trees
scattered about hither and yon rather than all concentrated together
like a smorgasbord, more will survive than not.
 
Maybe not.  We'll just have to see.  But I had *no* deer damage here
last year to my (poor pitiful) garden, despite seeing the occasional
track through the garden.  The dogs seem to keep them moving, without
even having to chase them (my dogs are not free running and won't be
until I have proper fencing up to keep them confined).

-- 
Holly ;-D
Contrary Peasant
sojournr AT missouri.org