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One thing is for sure, there is never a dull moment on a farm! Regardless of the season, there is always something to do. As Sarah mentioned in her note this week, things are slowing down to a saner pace now that our largest harvest is behind us for another year. This is a good time for us to re-group and work on projects that are put aside during peek season.
Pest control on the farm is year long, and it isn’t always for the faint of heart. Gophers are a major pest of young trees. These trees are extremely susceptible to gopher damage. The gophers burrow down and munch on their tender roots. A gopher can eat all the roots on a young tree in just a few nights, after which, the little tree flops over dead. The majority of the orchard is fairly safe from gopher damage because the trees are older and have a large and established root system, but we typically have about 2,000 new trees a year on the orchard that are spread over a lot of ground. These new trees are often replants scattered in different blocks of the orchard, making it difficult to monitor and control gopher damage. We’ve used various methods of control over the years including blasting and trapping. Our current method is to employ a hunter whose job is to scout the gophers and take care of things the old fashioned-way.
Last week, Ediberto, Frankie, Manuel Garcia, and Francisco were taking a break from their usual responsibilities to construct barn owl nesting boxes (we love that our team is multi-talented, carpentry skills are an added bonus!). We will be hanging 13 owl boxes throughout the farm in hopes that the owls will do a lot of the gopher control for us.
In Northern CA, barn owls begin choosing their nesting sites in December and January. Our cozy boxes will be waiting for them. Barn owls are extremely prolific in reproduction. These nocturnal creatures are highly adept hunters. Their wings render them near to silent and their highly developed hearing sense allows them to be able to find prey in complete darkness. These owls hunt all night long all year long to feed themselves and their young. An adult barn owl can eat up to one rodent per night, and chicks, depending on their size and the size of the rodent, can eat up to five! That’s good news for our new trees and for us!
If you come out to the farm for our Fall Harvest Festival, be sure to keep a look out for our newly installed owl nesting boxes.
