Managing thick grass in overgrown orchard
 

On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 10:45:06 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In article , Chris Green wrote:
In article ,

Any grazing animals in an orchard will be a disaster, they will browse
as well as graze. Not only will they eat the fruit, they will damage
branches as well.

That's not so. All you have to do is to ensure that the branches are
higher than the browsing height or the tree is protected to that height.
Yes, the animals will prune the trees to keep it that way, but that's
not a big deal. Goats might be a problem, as they will also eat bark,
but cattle, sheep, horses and their related species aren't.

Some sheep breeds browse more than others. My Dorpers are rather
goat-like in some ways and do like to browse a lot. That said, I let
my sheep into the orchard and do little to no damage to the trees once
they've eaten the lower branches, which I don't mind.

Managing thick grass in overgrown orchard
 

On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 11:57:05 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

Bluntly, domestic animals eating bark is a priori evidence
of mismanagement, at best, and animal cruelty at worst.

That's not necessarily the case. Some animals will eat bark even when
food is plentiful.

Managing thick grass in overgrown orchard
 

On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 07:51:05 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 11:49:27 +1000, Jeßus wrote:

On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 10:19:43 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 23/09/2016 02:08, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 21 Sep 2016 08:07:22 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:


Sheep?

That would be my solution.

Sheep don't like long grass.

That is true. You would have to get the grass short initially, but
after that...

Goats would do but they would like low
branches as well.

Yes, I wouldn't use goats in that situation.

I always understood that sheep graze, goats browse. In other words,
sheep eat stuff on the ground while goats eat stuff higher up, i.e.
shrubby stuff. But I expect there's some overlap.

Definitely some overlap. My Dorpers love to browse, but they are more
like a goat compared to other sheep breeds.