Wild pigs and neighborhood dogs are not what most farmers think of when asked what pests they manage for. Nor would they blurt out "skin-burning clover" as their main challenge in weed management. Then again, most farmers aren't organic coffee growers, farming on the Kona Coast of the big island of Hawaii.

Vicki Swift and her husband, John, operate Mother Goose Farms, an "estate" coffee company, growing, roasting and marketing organic coffee from five acres of fertile volcanic soils on the rugged slopes of Mauna Loa, famed for its prized macadamia nuts. "When we started Mother Goose Farms in 1978, dogs and wild pigs would root through our plantation looking for water from our irrigation system," says Vicki. "They did a lot of damage. Our other problem was desmodium clover, a noxious invasive vine that strangles our coffee plants. It's a nitrogen fixer, but it also burns your skin when you touch it."

Vicki Swift drying coffee beans

In the beginning, they used weed whackers to control weeds manually, "but that was breaking our backs, so we started looking for another way." They found their solution in using White Chinese Geese as grazing animals. "We thought we would experiment. We brought in 25 geese as day old chicks, and they immediately started eating the clover." Vicki and John now have more than 50 full-grown geese, which have become their only tool for weed management. The fencing they installed to corral the geese also keeps out pigs and dogs.

In Hawaii, weed management is a big deal. The year-round growing season makes the land productive for crops and weeds alike. The rocky, steep terrain adds to the difficulty of controlling weeds. So the majority of coffee plantations use conventional methods, including chemical herbicides and fertilizers.

"When we started, the prevailing idea was 'you can't do it organically,'" says Vicki, "but we were opposed to doing it with chemicals. There is still a lot of prejudice against organic, growers think they will lose production. But organic's increasing every year." In 1999, the top three winners in the world-renowned Kona Cupping Contest were organic coffees.

"I want to let people know that geese are amazing pasture animals; as grazers they can do a great job in any orchard situation. People look down on geese as livestock, but they are a viable option for sustainable and organic agriculture. The Chinese geese are the smallest of the breeds, very manageable and non-aggressive. They pose no problem as workers go in and out of the orchard."

On their five acres, they use an intensive grazing system. The geese are enclosed within a 12-gauge solar-powered electric perimeter fence, further sectioned off in 1/3-acre paddocks. They rotate the geese to a new paddock every 5-10 days depending on weather and weed growth. Over the last eight years, they have made a lot of improvements to fine-tune the system.

"Geese are very smart. They can figure out a fence and escape. We started with portable electric poultry netting, but because of our terrain and since the bottom wire is dead, they always figured a way out. Then, four years ago, we went to permanent cross-fencing with 30-inch tall plastic netting used in livestock and construction applications. It works great."

Their stocking rate of 10-12 geese per acre means about 50-60 geese on their farm. They supplement grazing with a little grain, feeding about 1/2-gallon per day, mainly as bait to keep the animals moving. They water the geese with a portable continual flow poultry fountain. Moving the geese to a new paddock is a one-man operation, so labor requirements are low.

"Our philosophy is to use minimal inputs, and cause minimal stress to the environment. Even though we call our system 'intensive grazing,' the geese cause no soil compaction and in fact provide a lot of benefits. They supplement our other organic fertilizer by adding a lot of manure to the soil, recycling a nitrogen fixing ground cover back into the soil. By constantly trampling the vegetation and adding organic matter, they have created a mat of soil that wasn't there before, which keeps moisture in the soil a whole lot longer than normal. This is important since we are on rocky soils that are a bit drier than most coffee growing areas."

White Chinese Geese

Another benefit of having the geese has been an increase in wildlife in the orchard. Before they installed the perimeter fence, wildlife was scarce due to predation and disturbance by the wild pigs and dogs. By keeping the roving animals out, Vicki now enjoys an abundance of ground-nesting birds on her property, such as wild turkeys and caliche pheasants.

And growing organic has broader environmental and social implications, as Vicki is quick to point out. "First, farmworkers are not exposed to harmful chemicals. Also, we are just finding out how harmful those chemicals are in polluting the groundwater. In the last 5-10 years, people are discovering well after well contaminated by chemicals from 100 years of sugar plantations. Now that sugar is gone, the people reclaiming the land will have to deal with contamination for generations to come."

For the Swifts, organic is a way of life that meshes perfectly with the economics of their coffee farm. Neighbors' assumptions to the contrary, Mother Goose's production compares favorably with the other farms on the island, acre-to-acre. "If you know what you are doing and do it right, you can match production rates." Because the geese add organic matter to the soil, fertilizer costs have been reduced by about half. Their one increased cost was for fencing, but they recouped those costs by reducing labor for manual weed management.

They use their success to counter the prevailing attitude against organic growing in Hawaii. With the University of Hawaii, they have produced a video about their weed management approach, and offer farm tours and information to other growers and the public through the University, the Conservation District, and Western SARE.

"Organic is happening. It's coming. People want it and see the need for it. It's not just about what they are putting in their mouths, but also the effect it can have to improve the environment where they live. It's about the whole world."

Vicki Swift
Mother Goose Farms
87-755 Lani Kona Rd.
Capt. Cook, HI 96740
Tel: (808) 328-2306

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