SHEEP AS LAWN MOWERS

We got into the sheep business as away to avoid mowing the grass in our orchard. The fields on three sides of our house are entirely fenced, making a big U-shaped area with the house in the hollow of the "U". The orchard is out front, mainly semi-dwarf apple trees with a few peaches, plums and one medlar tree. We had been grazing the ponies in there in the late Fall and early Spring, but after the fruit started forming, we had to lock the horses out or they'd eat all the apples before we had a chance to get any. Of course, without the horses to graze it down, the grass got a bit long out there.

Since the orchard is the scene we see through the picture window over coffee every morning, it was impossible to ignore the ever-lengthening grass. We discussed various options, and finally decided to get sheep, as they weren't tall enough to reach the apples. That way, we'd get the grass cut, save the apples, and have some free wool for Phebe, who loves to spin and knit. After researching the various breeds available in our area, we bought three Jacob ewes in September of 1997. Looking out the window one morning, we noticed the sheep gnawing on the bark of fruit trees. The next weekend, we wrapped the trunks of all fifty trees in a protective paper tree wrap. This discouraged the ewes and they went back to grazing the grass.

A month later we got a Jacob ram, who quickly discovered that he could rub the protective paper off the trunks with his massive horns and have a nice snack of apple tree bark. Once he started unwrapping a tree, the ewes could finish the job. So we made wire mesh cages out of four foot wire fencing to put around each of the trees. This worked for a while, but the sheep soon learned that they could just butt the cages and fold them up, exposing the bark again.

Someone on the misc.rural newsgroup suggested that maybe the sheep were deficient in some mineral, causing them to look for it in the tree bark. We put out a bowl of free-feed sheep minerals, plus some hay, but that didn't help. Phebe decided that the sheep were just after taste thrills.

We then cut a whole lot of six foot lengths of galvanized pipe from some stock that had been lying around the barn for the last half century and pounded the pipes into the ground as support for the wire cages, preventing the cages from collapsing when they were butted. This new strategy held them off for the Winter. Unfortunately, animals have all day to do nothing but think of ways around the obstacles you put in their path. In the Spring, they discovered that if they put their front hooves on the wire mesh, they could just slide the cages down the pipes a little at a time, giving them unobstructed access to the trees.

To keep them from doing this, we looped iron wire over the tops of the support pipes and tied the ends to the fencing. This way, they couldn't slide the fencing down the pipes any more. While they couldn't get through the cages any more, they didn't have to. They quickly learned that the wire mesh was now sturdy enough to use as a ladder; resting their front hooves on the mesh allowed them to stand on their hind legs and reach up to the exposed branches.

At this point, the war turned chemical. We bought some "Sheep Be Gone" solution to spray on the trees to make the bark taste bad. This seemed to work, but as soon as it rained, we needed another $25 worth of spray to retreat the trees. Realizing that we were beaten, we just fenced the sheep out of the orchard and saved ourselves a lot of aggravation. It's much easier to look at some long grass than to watch the sheep eating your apple trees every morning.


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