The posts and wire was a complete and utter disaster. Never again.

That is a good solution. Well done.

What an interesting comment. Thank you for sharing your experience. Regarding dogs, I have a young Golden Retriever who has deterred Deer from around the house. However, now the deer are targeting the fields furthest from the house, so all the dog did was move the problem to another part of the farm! With regards to interplanting other types of crops around the trees, I'm not against the idea, but oddly in various trials, there didn't appear to be much benefit in yields. I haven't quite got my head around why companion planting would not correlate with improved yield. I must revisit this research to see if there is any new commentary. All the best.

Hi Peter. I agree with your comments. The cages are coming down and I've got mulch around the trees. I would like to have a wider area mulched around the trees, but right now I don't have enough woodchip to do that. Hopefully over the coming years I can sort out an affordable solution for mulching around the trees and increase the area mulched.

​@GubbFarm have you ever tried using "bone sauce" to eliminate herbivores eating your trees?

That is interesting. I'm off to do some research on that. Thank you.

@@GubbFarm yeah I think it really help you with managing wildlife and livestock around your valuable trees.

Ha. Very good quote.

You are welcome. I hope all is well with you.

I couldn't agree more. Hope all is well. 👍

Hello Stuart and lovely to hear from you. I've got myself back into the mind set of editing videos and next on the list is an update on the coppicing forest. I hope all is well.

Hello Willie. The wire cages have been nothing but trouble for me. They create a scaffold for grasses and smoother young trees. It is hard to mow under the wire without hitting the tree with a strimmer. As a result of that you can't easily mulch around the trees. The next issue is that the wire causes scaffolding branches to either get damaged or deflect inwards. It is a pain and I regret availing of the grant.

@@GubbFarm I'm with you there and I don't even have trees in the ground yet. Trying not to lose face with the higher ups I suppose

@@willieclark2256the money is great when you get it, but it is a pain. If you are doing this, keep the wire cage well off the ground to allow you to pull out the grass inside the cage. Use a staple gun to attach the cage, so that you can easily reposition it if needed and don't go hammering steeples into it! Keep an eye on branch development and cut out segments of the wire that are impacting it. Then put a tracking device on each wire cage, because when the deer get at it, you will likely find the cage in another field! All good fun.

@@GubbFarm all great tips, thanks so much.

Thank you DRT. All the best.

Hello Jason. Thanks for your comment. I did try fishing line and for a while it stopped the deer, so maybe the next thing to try is electric fencing, possibly around the rutting season. Depending on the damage this year, I might have to bit the bullet and fit talk wire fences. There is a balancing act between tree looses and the cost of fitting fences. I'm off now to have a look at Mark Shepherds set up. Thank you. All the best.

Thank you Justus and I hope life is being good to you in South Africa. All the best.

@@GubbFarm thank you. God is our provider, so it is all good.

How very true. Wild birds, badgers, deer, cats, dogs... they are absolutely fine, but cows are chickens... they will kill you. Alas not everyone made it to the front of the queue when they where handing out common sense. Many of those left behind appear to have been mostly employed in writing government policies.

Hello Conor. I am looking around for a dog and it will be interesting to see if they will keep the deer at bay. I am thinking about getting a gun dog such as a Gold Retriever and training it to track deer. Deer are fast on their feet, so I can't see the dog actually catching one, but it should keep them on the move if they come near. Thanks for your comment. All the best.

@@GubbFarm agreed - they don’t need to catch one - just scare them off. Recommend Belgian Shepherd, Malinois type. Used by police forces all over the world and very trainable - they’ll scare the bejesus out of most things!

@@GubbFarm maybe also consider a guardian dog, especially if you are planning to have livestock such as turkeys. Maremmas are supposesly trainable to defend poultry.

That idea sprang into my mind, too: get a couple dogs. (For scaring the deer away.) Good luck with all this. It's very interesting to watch your calm consideration of each quandary as it arises. There's no end to them. HEY! There's a Dary in every quandary! ... Ahem.

@@drtootsi I have a Pyrenees I don’t think they are much different from a Maremma it’s the best dog ever doesn’t bark excessively only when something or someone is out of place and wouldn’t hurt any living creature at all

Hello Steve, good to hear from you. Electric fencing or tall wire fence might be the required. I am going to get a dog and train it to track deer, so hopefully the dog will also help keep them at bay. I am going to make a bioreactor, like the one you created at some point over the coming weeks. Just some posts and chicken wire. I hope all is well.

@@GubbFarm The electric wire would probably be more effective. 2 or 3 wires at different heights. I will keep an eye out for a new bioreactor video from you. Have a good one Dary.

Hello Bob and good to hear from you. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see guidance that livestock cannot be kept in an orchard for 12 months before harvest. That being said, it is only guidance and if I am sensible around harvesting and don't join any farm assurance schemes, I should be able to work around it. I've been doing some research into how long pathogens last in the soil and one paper suggested that within 3 weeks, introduced pathogens were reduced to background levels. I can understand what regulators are trying to achieve, but I think the subject matter requires more research. All the best.

@@GubbFarm well IMO those regs are nonsense. Are they trying to say that the area's fruit/nut trees grow in is sterile? No wild birds/animals around pooing? Are the wild deer not pooing then? Utter rubbish if you ask me. The real cause of all these pathogens is factory farming.

This guy knows where it starts. A long one but worth watching kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i82VrZaKrp_TpGw.html

Hello@@Grown-in-Tyrone. I agree, it is nonsense... dogs, cats, badgers, birds, mice, squirrels, deer etc roam through the orchard on a daily basis. I was just looking at your polytunnel on your channel. Nice. My vegetables outside last year had mixed results and thinking about setting up a polytunnel. I hope all is well.

@@GubbFarm yes, polytunnels are handy and cheap for sure but if I had it to do again I'd probably get another glasshouse. Its only more recently that I realised the amount of pollution and GHGs coming off plastic. Also, glasshouse is cleaner drier air, not so sweaty. Unfortunately, expensive to replicate same amount of space as PT. One good thing though, all the veggies I've grown in it have not been wrapped in single use plastic. I'd recommend a 'legume garden' for beans and peas outside. No need to rotate crops so permanent supports, handy!

Thank you. I must try and source some to see how well they do.

You are welcome Dmitry. All the best.

Hello Anemone. That was an interesting video, thank you. I am going for single stem trees, so the dead hedge might not fit, but.. it has got me thinking that maybe I should layer up the hedgerows along the way lines that the deer typically follow to try and deflect them away from the farm. I did put up a 5 foot fence around the border of two of the fields and it has slowed the deer, but I have seen them jump it. That being said, they ran up and down the fence panicking to try get out when they saw me, but in the end, they cleared it. If doing it again, I think a 6-foot wire fence, combined with a decent hedge would stop them. I've learnt that deer won't jump a hedge if they can't spot their landing, so a thick hedge can offer protection. With regards to Kentish Cobnuts, I went to visit some orchard owners in Kent before establishing Gubb Farm. They were very helpful and it was informative. What I've come to realise is that they have different challenges when compared to Gubb Farm. I heard talk of voles and squirrels, which are not an issue for me, whereas deer is my main issue. With regards to deer numbers, they have no predators and their numbers are growing exponentially. There is going to have to be some sort of intervention such as a significant cull to bring herd sizes down. All the best Dary

@@GubbFarm First big question: If livestock are frowned upon, how come deer are okay? I use dead hedges to fence out deer because I have the material to build them as a by-product of why I cut coppice - fuel wood. I have used Tenax alone in a previous life and very successfully. It needs to be 6 feet high for roe deer. You can use it with a scattering of branches inside or outside to increase its effectiveness. Add it to stock fence with a hedge behind (as in your vids in various places) and I think it will work well. If they are long enough, you might split your used tree stakes on a tablesaw or bandsaw and screw them to fenceposts, raising the base of the tenax above the ground to allow strimming along the base and to increase the actual height beyond 6'. You shouldn't need a top wire in this situation and the mesh should last around 10 years. It is light in weight and seems not to need too much support. Grey squirrels (non-natives from North America of course) in southern England woodlands eat pretty well all the hazelnuts, often taking them before they are ripe. There is a vid on the channel showing this. You are better off without them. I hope this is all useful. I agree with your last sentence, but it's a bit of a 'room elephant'. There seems to be no 'plan' in our area for deer control and deer (especially sika) appear to be increasing their population very quickly and spreading across Dorset extremely fast. We need a co-ordinated programme of control, not just individual landowners acting alone or (worse) taking out the mature territory-holding (trophy) stags and leaving the rest. Are deer a 'natural resource' that humans (as introducers of sika, fallow and muntjac and exterminators of their natural predators) have a moral duty to husband or is the emotional resistance to killing deer going to prevent any action ever? Deer also graze arable crops and I even know of a charity that offers carriage driving as therapy that have had to deer fence their pony paddocks to be able to graze them. Shutting up now.....

Hello@@anemone104 You have hit on a key point regarding livestock being frowned on, but no consideration towards other animals such as deer. Ultimately there are many wild animals that carry the same pathogens as domestic livestock on the farm such as rodents, birds, badgers and deer. I've been thinking a lot about the fencing. I know that putting up the Tenax will deter the deer, but I don't want that on all of the boundaries, at least for now, but that might change. Possibly I will target key way lines that the deer follow to deflect them around the farm, with improved hedging and wire. But all of that being said, I have probably had around 10 to 20 trees damaged, which is less than 1% of the total number of trees planted, so maybe that is an acceptable loss. More thought is required. All the best

Hello Indrek. Thanks for that. I was just watching some of the Savannah Institute videos. All the best.

Hello Sam. You could make the fence higher and I think that is the only effective solution. All the best.

Agreed!

Hello Kevin. I have considered mulch mats and they are probably a decent option, but never progressed it. Ended up settling on woodchip as the research suggested it was the best option for maximising yield. That being said, I haven't read much research on mulch matts and I would be interested in learning from your experience. All the best.

Hello Dave. I bought a Golden Retriever who takes great delight in chasing after deer around the farm (and waking me at 3am by barking at them and anything else that moves). As a result, I have not seen any fraying on trees near the house, but at the opposite end of the farm the deer have damaged trees. Dogs do work, but you would need to have them distributed around the farm to fully prevent deer damage. As for poultry, this is something I have repeatedly looked at. I think it could be a viable business, but it is not something I want to commit to at the moment. If I introduced poultry, I am very dependent on buying in animal feed and you are very much at the mercy of the markets as to whether or not you profit. If I was an arable farmer who could produce my own animal feed, I think it would be a great fit, as I can control my cost base. All the best

Hello. Thanks for your comment. I originally had chicken wire cages around the trees, with about a 40 cm diameter, but it didn't work out well. Firstly the branches of the tree got caught up in the wire and secondly the wire created a climbing frame for other vegetation, which in turn reduced sun light / crowded out the trees when it was getting established. Having spent endless hours putting it up, then adjusting it to fix problems, the deer still ripped it off. In the end, out of sheer frustration, I removed the wire cages.

@@GubbFarm Ahh fair enough others use plastic tubes. I wonder what the best way would be to have sheep in your paddock doing the mowing and weeding without destroying your trees.

Hello. That is an interesting idea, however brambles and nettles might make it difficult to harvest the nuts off the trees. I hope all is well.

@@GubbFarm once the tree is established it's canopy will stop nettle growing, bramble can be removed or trained later on. Bramble and Eurasian Jays are the tree makers

Use a syntropic set-up of a mix of plants to have plenty of mulch at hand. Plant blackberry and gorse with apples as protection and feeder trees.

Hello Stuart. I am trying to hold off putting up deer fences, more so from an aesthetics perspective. I have now accepted there will be loses and will replant. All the best

How very true! I still keep thinking I want to see some chickens running around the orchard. Maybe this summer.

Hi Jay. That is an option. I did try using plastic spiral guards and you end up with a lot of leaf growth inside them that rots if you don't remove it. The deer combined with UV damage resulted in a lot of broken plastic around the trees. However, a wider sturdier drainage pipe with better airflow might work. All the best.

@@GubbFarm I have been planting the land with trees on a sheep farm which also has deer knocking around, and Inused to try all the guards to keep them away from the trees but the only thing that has worked is to grow the trees in a small nursery section which is protected until they get to approx 6 foot then dig them up, prune and add the pipe which is pretty good value per tree. Deer don't normally come.on my land as its being grazed but any field i keep up the deer will be in it, so your juice field of grass is heaven for them

That is interesting Jay. I hadn't thought about it, but long grass is probably a magnet for the deer.

Hello and good to hear from you. My end goal is to sell the nuts directly, so hopefully I won't have much need to use larger food chain. I would agree with your comment on UV light. The truth of the matter is that even if you don't have livestock in the orchard, you are still going to have birds, dogs, cats, badgers and various others mammals coming and going. The current guidance is very flawed. All the best Dary

How interesting. I had never heard of bear grease until I read your comment. All the best.

Hello Dick. I'm just watching a video on Billy's Bone Sauce. It sounds very interesting and what a lovely farm setting they have on Perma Pastures Farm. Thank you!

@@GubbFarm Your welcome. Interestingly deer have poor depth perception. There is another Channel called Living Traditions Homestead that has had success with a double fence system around one of their pastures. However two 4 foot perimeter fences (versus one ugly 8 foot fence) will be a huge cost in your case. Cheers

Hello DRT. I agree that is flimsy. One of the problems with more robust solutions is cost. With 2100 trees, the cost of putting in place more expensive solutions quickly adds up. Perimeter fencing is the best option and with hindsight, I probably should have added another row to the fence. Lessons learnt. As you mentioned, it is finding that balancing act between initial investment and tree loses. All the best.

Bare root hedging such as hawthorn and blackthorn for fencing.

That is correct.

Deer, foxes, badgers, dogs, cats, birds, field mice.... I agree with you Peter.