Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

In Kern and Merced County, California, Julie Finzel of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources is working with local farmers to study the impacts of integrating cover crops and sheep grazing in almond orchards. In conventional almond orchards throughout California, these techniques are not implemented and the rows between the trees are bare soil with little to no microbial activity. With these methods, farmers Benina Montes of Burroughs Family Farms and Brett Sill of Sill Properties are noticing an increase in soil organic matter and nutrient density in their almonds.

This Western SARE grant allowed the producers to study whether integrating sheep into the orchard is a safe practice for human consumption. So far, results have shown a positive relationship between incorporating sheep into the orchard for overall orchard, human, and animal health.

The team plans to use the research findings from this study to apply for a larger grant to conduct further research and determine whether this is a safe and effective practice at scale.