If you confine them to a smaller area of daisies, and move them once
or twice
a day, they should make pretty short work of them. These sheep will
eat
almost anything. Now if only I could get them to get rid of all the
yarrow...
Julian
It's a tough set of priorities - I can only graze them in an area to a
certain extent, and the entire pasture isn't set up for sheep grazing
yet, meaning I can't get them where they could do the most good at the
moment.. Unfortunately, the daisies march to their own drum and grow at
their own speed. When the grass quits growing and the sheep are taken
off the pasture, the daisies will continue, and it will just be
mow-mow-mow. As the soil fertility comes up, the daisy "problem" will
take care of itself.
Yarrow is an indicator of the following: Low calcium, phosphorus and
humus, and compost can help stop knapweed - sounds like both species
could use the same treatment. Generally, when you get your soil
balanced, as I am trying to do, the grasses and legumes go nuts and the
weeds tend to disappear. believe it or not, most weeds have a fairly
narrow band of soil requirements to thrive. My oxeye daisies go hand in
hand with wild salsify and Queen Anne's lace as indicators that the soil
is in pretty rough shape. The sheep are a key element in renewing it.
Find some BioDynamic (a form of advanced organic gardening/farming)
practitioners locally - yarrow is one of the key species in their
preparations! They may be interested in taking some of it off your
hands!
Regards,
Barb
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