Farming greener

Recently I came across an article in Southwest Farm Press that reminded me of farming green. The article was about using sheep to keep down weeds and grasses among the grapevines in a vineyard. This caught my eye as I envisioned a disaster with sheep eating the desired grapevines instead of the weeds and grass. The article was all about how it was working under a study at the University of California Hopland Research and Extension Center.

They have trained sheep not to eat the grapevines. They worked at changing the sheep’s diet preference. Animal’s history influences their diet. The researcher allowed the sheep to eat their fill of grape leaves, and then they gave the sheep a dose of lithium chloride, which was not harmful to the sheep, but did create in them the sensation of a stomachache. This was not a good experience for the sheep and they learned that they did not want any grape leaves again.

 Thus the sheep were trained to avoid grape leaves and yet serve the vineyard in cleaning up the tremendous feed of grass and weeds growing abundantly on the vineyard floor. The shepherd finds an additional source of feed for his flock and the vineyard owner has a green grape crop on which no herbicides have been applied.

There is a plus for the shepherd and the vineyard. Green farming and herding has benefited both.

Father Samuel Heitkamp is a retired priest and was director of the former rural life organization in the archdiocese.