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  • From: Leslie Moyer <unschooler@lrec.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [NAFEX] orchard+pigs+chickens
  • Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 15:51:09 -0600

Thanks Jim--I'm already on the Organic Tree Fruit Assn email list, but for
some reason I can't post there. I think they must moderate new members (many
lists do), but perhaps their moderator doesn't check the file to approve
those waiting emails as I've sent through a couple of emails (months ago) and
neither has shown up. It's a pretty slow list. I've also pored over the
MOSES website but had not found those particular articles--thanks!! Just
what I was looking for!! I would like to attend their upcoming conference
later this month (they have a whole mini-course on organic orcharding), but
it's so far away from me and I've got baby plants I'm tending. I may try to
get some info from their presenters later.... For those who are interested,
ATTRA just did a webinar on Organic Orcharding that was really good. You can
find it archived on their website (free).

Steven (or Margaret?) Eisenhaur, did you mean that Michael Phillips has a new
edition of "The Apple Grower" or that he has a new book by a different name?
I have his newest (2005) edition of The Apple Grower and I don't see another
book by him on Amazon....

Rivka, I know this practice (keeping animals in the orchard all or most of
the year) would prevent me from becoming certified organic, but we have such
bad insect and disease pressure here because of high humidity that organic
fruit production is nearly impossible. I'm feeling like I'm going to have to
choose between some degree of profitability (and using animals) or losing so
much of my crop that I can't make ends meet. I won't use harmful
chemicals--that is not an option for me, personally--for my own health as
much as my customers.

I've been attending a lot of workshops and webinars and doing a lot of
reading about organic fruit management and it sounds like the biggest pest
problem in my area that there isn't a good organic control method for is plum
curculio. I think that pigs (cleaning up dropped fruit) and chickens
(cleaning up pupating insects) would be pretty effective control measures for
this and the little bit I've been able to find on this confirms those
thoughts. One of the articles about integrating animals into your orchard
system said it cut down plum curculio by something like 70-80% I think?
(Don't quote me.) It was high, though....maybe a conventional orchardist
wouldn't be OK with still losing 20-30% of a crop, but I'd be thrilled with
those numbers.

We will be using ramial wood chips as mulch and I've already started comfrey
from seed (the chickens would probably eat this, too...hmmm..) Our thought
is to use electric poultry netting to confine the chickens to the area under
the trees, where the dropped & pupating insects would be. We know they would
scratch in the mulch (we've raised plenty of chickens before)--and we would
want them to because that's where the insects will be hiding--but because of
the netting, they wouldn't be able to scatter it far. I do have a concern
about their adding too much nitrogen under the trees however--bad for soil
biology & may be adding nitrogen at a bad time depending upon how long we
have to leave the chickens there. We wouldn't keep the chickens there all
year long, though...just through the worst of the insect hatching season(s).
We have a small, locally-owned USDA-inspected poultry processing facility
just 5 miles from our home so we would raise broilers on the orchard (under
the trees only) and then have them butchered when we were done with them. We
can sell them through a local food coop that we're a part of.

We would ring the pigs' noses to keep them from rooting and would only keep
them on that pasture long enough to pick up the fruit drops--they wouldn't be
housed there permanently. Herding pigs....now that's an interesting image....

Off to do more research. Thanks again for those links, Jim!

--Leslie

On Feb 7, 2011, at 10:51 AM, Erdman, James wrote:

>
> Hi Leslie
> There is a group that started in Wisconsin a few years ago that now covers
> a wider area called "Organic Tree Fruit Asociation" and some members have
> been keeping pigs in their apple orchards. One is in Michigan and has been
> the subject of field days, etc. I have heard the owner speak at the
> Wisconsin Organic Farming Conference in the past. The Organic Tree Fruit
> Assoc newsletters are available online:
> http://www.mosesorganic.org/treefruit/newsletters.htm#issues I think that
> Winter 2009 (Vol 5 issue 1) and Fall 2009 (Vol 5 issue 2) have articles
> about hogs in orchards, and refer to articles in earlier issues, also. The
> Organic Tree Fruit Association also has an online discussion that is a
> Yahoo group. Info should be at the website, I think.
>
> Jim Erdman, in Menomonie, WI



  • Re: [permaculture] [NAFEX] orchard+pigs+chickens, Leslie Moyer, 02/07/2011

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