An on going job for me during Lockdown that I set myself was to clear out the scrub from our orchard block. All of this was done by hand. While l did start wearing gloves on my hands they quickly wore out so my hands had no option but to harden up. When we first brought our property the hut block and orchard block were one which made it very hard to muster the sheep into the yards so I put a fence down the middle. These blocks were full of scrub which had fruit trees planted through out. At first I could not put the sheep in here as they would have killed the fruit trees.
During the first couple of years I put fences around each fruit tree for protection and as they have grown big enough that the sheep won’t effect them I have been able to remove these fences.
When I first attempted to clear this block I cut the scrub off at ground level and have since discovered that the matagouri just keeps on growing from the roots and the only way to clear it out is to remove all of the roots of the plant. This requires a lot of effort with the pick and a lot of brute strength.
There has been a bit of rosehip also which is a prick of a plant as it is very sharp above ground so by digging around the base it can be pulled out roots and all. I also found some blackberry which once again had to be dug out.
The braken was prolific throughout the block. To remove this I have just pulled it out at ground level which leaves the roots in the ground still but the braken does not do well In fertile soil. The sheep will eat the young braken shoots but not the mature plant so it comes down too the grazing pressure that I put onto the bracken. In the past I have not been able to graze this block too hard as my top priority was the fruit trees.
Late summer and autumn I put all of our stock up into the three top hill blocks that have a lot of feed. This saves the bottom four paddocks for winter if it looks like we are going to get a snow dump we can bring the sheep down onto some green grass. During spring and summer the sheep are moved around these four paddocks so they can eat the new braken shoots and also pooh out all of that great fertiliser that changes the PH in the soil that will make it hard for the braken too survive.
