Let Livestock Do Your Fall Cleanup

Halloween is here and this is when we turnout the sheep, goats and chickens into the vineyards for fall clean up. The sheep love the Maple and Oak leaves while the goat head straight for the last hardy grass and weeds. They will eat almost everything in the field this time of year, being less picky now knowing that winter is coming. Mowed, leaf clean up and fertilized for next year almost done.

The chickens get their turn also to finish it off the season now. While they are aways excited run around the field the vineyard has old grapes and bugs to find.First off they jump up and pull off the old fruit and bugs them it down to work. They will eat weed seed heads, scratch around looking for more seeds and bugs hiding on the ground. Dethatching, weed and bug/slug maintenance, breaking up manure piles and adding their own fertilizer for spring. The best part is this is happening while I am eating lunch and typing this post and all day long while I'm working on more pressing things like firewood. It is not perfect but it is pretty dam close in my book.

Have Great Halloween!