North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>]

Grazing questions-- getting off-topic (thank for your indulgence):

2 goats, one acre, one month.  Hmm.  Does anyone know whether the poison ivy 
would have rebounded if hogs had NOT been pastured next?  Or what the result 
would be from a higher stocking rate of goats, but a rotational grazing 
system for an entire summer?  Does anyone know if scots highland cattle 
preferentially browse poison ivy?  I have an area I'd like to clear of most 
of its p.ivy and slow down the autumn olive and carve some trails thru the 
brambles.  (It's a 5-acre patch with 4 apple trees & a couple amelanchiers, 
and with all those autumn olive to explore maybe I'm on-topic after all.)


----Original Message Follows----
From: dtv
To: North American Fruit Explorers <>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Killing Poison Ivy Organically
Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 10:00:14 US/Central

I've used goat also & they do love it, wish I had had the hogs for followup. 
 I
also wanted to say that for small patches, clear plastic burns it if you 
leave
it for a whole summer, thru several cycles of regeneration.  Be careful
disposing of the plastic, of course, if you're sensitive to the stuff like 
me.

mIEKAL



>     There seems to be much interest in killing Poison Ivy so I thought 
I'd
> tell you how I killed it.  I had alot of it and it was so thick that I
> couldn't get into it to spray without getting some on me so, first, I 
made a
> trip to the hardware store.  I bought electric fence supplies, enough to
> enclose my one acre, installing two wires, one at 12" high and another at
> 30".  Then I rented two goats.  Goats LOVE the stuff.  After a month or 
so,
> the land was de-nuded of Poison Ivy AND all other brush,  but the roots 
were
> still intact.  I returned the goats and bought a few pigs (I couldn't 
find
> anyone who would rent pigs).  The pigs rooted up all of the roots.  Then,
> when the land was ready to plant, the neighbors and I had pork sausage in
> the freezer.
>
> Jim Fruth
> Brambleberry Farm
> Pequot Lakes, MN
> www.bberryfarm.com
>