Beneficial Impact of Animals
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Incorporating animals into the orchard is a very useful way of carrying out a wide range of beneficial functions within the orchard. By harnessing the natural behaviours of animals to the advantage of establishing a regenerative system - we can deploy an around the clock work force to maintain nutrient cycles and maintain the structure and function of the orchard we have designed.
Below I will explore some of the main benefits of utilising animals in an orchard:
Browsing alley ways or maintaining a more simple orchard structure:
Improve soil fertility through recycling plant matter into beneficial manures:
Break life cycle stages of pests: Pests number can be reduced in the orchard through the function of grazers eating falling fruit and fowl eating insect larvae that have fallen to the ground. In a similar way wild bird can be encouraged to forage within the orchard through providing nesting boxes and border plantings of taller trees for refuges and roosting. If these taller border planting include fruiting trees - it has been observed that birds will feel more secure and favour eating this fruit than that within the sub-canopy layer of dwarf fruit trees in the orchard. Movable bird netting can also be draped over trees at peak production times to avoid loss of fruit from wild birds (while allowing for the beneficial function removing insect pests within the wider orchard).
Below I will explore some of the main benefits of utilising animals in an orchard:
Browsing alley ways or maintaining a more simple orchard structure:
- Depending upon the composition of the food forest orchard required a number of different grazers can be used. At the simplest level this may involve small sheep that can be rotated through the orchard with movable fencing and convert orchard grasses, herbs and sub canopy plants down and recycle these nutrients to the growing trees. A similar holistic grazing method should be followed as outlined in the holistic grazing course. IN a similar fashion in a broad acre planting cows can be integrated with trees - which may be producing nuts, cider apples or provide an alternative fodder for during lean summer months (willow, poplar, tree lucerne). In the orchard variety of this approach productive shrubs, companion nitrogen fixating shrubs and trees, vines and some subcanopy plants (such as borage and comfrey).
- If more complexity is desired within the food forest layers - especially when incorporating more sensitive herbs, bi-annual vegetables and perennial greens the grazers will either need to be rapidly moved through the orchard or confined to some sort of movable tractor system. A tractor can be used to keep pathways between planting grazed and open and an orchard can be designed around the movement of this tractor. Different poultry (chicken, quail, guinea fowl, ducks, turkey, geese) are ideal for this system.
- Care must be taken to provide for the welfare and needs of animals confined within a tractor system however (water, foraging space, shelter, sufficient diversity and quantity of food). There are many excellent online resources exploring different designs of a tractors and time should be invested in researching that which is best suited to your application. My preference is for systems that incorporate a movable electric fence run (that can powered using a solar panel on the house of the tractor system.
Improve soil fertility through recycling plant matter into beneficial manures:
- Plants go through various cycle of growth where there focus is either producing exudates to micro organisms to promote growth or producing seeds for reproduction. In pasture grasses and herbs within an orchard there is a pronounced seasonal change in exudate production as the plant pass through different stages in their lifestyle. In addition to these changes - as the grasses and herbs mature they can clog the pathways within an orchard and detrimentally impact the function of the design/
- With these to points in mind there is an optimal stage in the maturation of the grasses in the alleyways to move an animal tractor through it and convert the plant matter to manures for more efficient absorption of the nutrients from the plants back into the soil (with the addition of the pro biotics from the animals digestive system).
- This is typically a few rotations during rapid spring growth and a summer rotation when grasses are turning to seed and a few more in autumn when growth picks up again. During the peak of summer and winter it is beneficial to rest the grasses in the alley ways from grazing to maintain length and diversity of the grass/herb community and avoid short cropping and removal of sensitive species out of the community.
Break life cycle stages of pests: Pests number can be reduced in the orchard through the function of grazers eating falling fruit and fowl eating insect larvae that have fallen to the ground. In a similar way wild bird can be encouraged to forage within the orchard through providing nesting boxes and border plantings of taller trees for refuges and roosting. If these taller border planting include fruiting trees - it has been observed that birds will feel more secure and favour eating this fruit than that within the sub-canopy layer of dwarf fruit trees in the orchard. Movable bird netting can also be draped over trees at peak production times to avoid loss of fruit from wild birds (while allowing for the beneficial function removing insect pests within the wider orchard).
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Benefit to Health of Animals
Equally important to the benefit to the orchard is the benefit to the animals. The diverse and health ecology that is established within a permaculture orchard provides an optimal environment for the health of many animals. Within this environment they will suffer from less pest and disease harm and benefit form a sheltered environment providing a wide variety of different foods.
It is because of these benefits that even in a broad acre grazing system - incorporating a variety of trees into that system so that it functions as an open woodland - or using tree crops as alley ways to divide up pastures confers many beneficial impacts to the animals within those systems.
It is because of these benefits that even in a broad acre grazing system - incorporating a variety of trees into that system so that it functions as an open woodland - or using tree crops as alley ways to divide up pastures confers many beneficial impacts to the animals within those systems.