STELLENBOSCH, South Africa, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Flocks of white, black and brown geese hunt for snails and bugs as they patrol the grapevines at a winery in South Africa’s winemaking city of Stellenbosch, serving to the house owners avoid pesticides and artificial fertilisers.
Round 500 Indian runner geese work as a pure pest management on the Vergenoegd Löw Wine Property, but in addition entertain wine-quaffing vacationers.
“We name them the troopers of the vineyards,” the managing director of the property, Corius Visser, instructed Reuters.
Geese are on the coronary heart of the vineyard’s regenerative agriculture practices, and particularly Indian runner geese, which have lengthy legs and an upright posture, that means they can attain for snails between the leaves.
Nutrient-rich manure from the geese and different animals make sure the winery runs as sustainably as potential.
[1/6] A flock of Indian Runner geese, which help as pure pest-control, instead of pesticides, by consuming all of the snails and bugs, stroll amidst the grape vines throughout their every day patrol across the Vergenoegd Wine Property, in Stellenbosch, in Cape City, South Africa, January 12, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
Following their chief, the geese march in convoy by the vines.
“It is wonderful how they behave themselves, stroll in a row, and it is like they’re within the military,” stated Merle Holdsworth, a vacationer.
The geese comply with a every day routine: Within the morning, they go to the vineyards to stop crop injury, and within the night they return to their paddocks to peck at pellets of nutritious hen meals.
Employee Yodell Scholtz has been rearing the geese for the previous two years.
“It is virtually like elevating your individual kids, so I get pleasure from it lots,” Scholtz stated.
Reporting by Esa Alexander and Catherine Schenck
Writing by Anait Miridzhanian
Modifying by Hereward Holland and Frances Kerry
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