Fox proof grass grazers...

[scrw.]

...that won't eat/damage young trees, does such a thing exist?

Have a large orchard that I don't want to use sprays on, and its taking up a far bit of time to mow during the summer, even with a 1.6m topper on an orchard tractor. Local place to me tried shropshire (?) sheep which are meant to be tree friendly, but they just ate them. Open to trying any type of creature but we don't live on site so putting them in every night will be an issue, plus we have several foxes in the area just waiting to scoff my prefered choice of grazer, geese, and fox proof fencing isn't practical either.

cheers

[Efbe]

[scrw.]

Alpaca? heard differing opinions on if they would eat the trees/apples, anyone have any?

Although a guard Llama sounds cool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama wonder if they take to geese.

Edited by scrw. on Tuesday 29th May 21:53

[axgizmo]

Nicer problems to have

[ElectricSoup]

Hello, city boy here. As you'll see from my question. How the fk do sheep manage to eat trees? The leaves are surely 6-8 feet off the ground at least. they can't climb, or fly, right? What am I missing?

How about Shetland ponies?

Edit: Ah, sorry, I've read the post properly now! Young trees.

Edited by ElectricSoup on Wednesday 30th May 13:04

Edited by ElectricSoup on Wednesday 30th May 13:05

[scrw.]

Depends on the rootstock the trees are grown on, mine are on mm106 which means they grow to about 4m tall and lower branches are 1m from the ground. The big issue is bark on the trunks however, most things that eat grass eat the bark too. Horses and cattle are no good, as well as eating the bark then tend to knock trees down bimbling about between them.