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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Grow fruit higher than deer can reach?

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  • From: "road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grow fruit higher than deer can reach?
  • Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 11:47:55 -0500


On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 12:11 PM, Rick Valley wrote:

I'm very curious as to whether it would be possible to move sheep through
quickly enough to mow and yet not de-bark the trees; the owner is not
interested in managing any stock, though.

From L.H. Bailey, Principles of Fruit Growing, 1909 edition: "Plow the old apple orchard . . . if this is not feasible, then pasture it closely with sheep or hogs, feeding the stock at the same time."

There's undoubtedly been work done in this area since, though I haven't got it to hand. Neighbors and I applied for a SARE grant some years ago to try sheep in stone fruit, but didn't get the grant, which was to have gone for fencing costs etc, and we're both pretty broke and didn't do it. These days we would also have a complication as raw manure applications too close to harvest are discouraged due to the new e-coli versions; this would be less of a problem if your orchard is all harvested over a relatively limited length of time.




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