Farmers flock to baby-faced 'organic lawnmowers'

When Stephanie Helm started her boutique winery a decade ago she was determined to limit chemical exposure to her young family. Instead, the daughter of a CSIRO entomologist used her knowledge to introduce predatory insects to kill off pests, like the aphid-eating ladybug, and the winery is now insecticide-free. "It's easier working with nature than against it," she told AAP. The owner of The Vintner's Daughter vineyard at Murrumbateman, near Canberra, was still dealing with vegetation under the vines when she stumbled across Babydoll sheep. "They just eat basically at their head height ... even though they're short, they're also quite solid, so they're not like Dorpers that can jump up on their back legs and eat up and damage the vines." Four years on, this cute but effective natural weedkiller has allowed Ms Helm and her husband, who wanted a more sustainable and organic approach to wine, to move away from much of their herbicide use. "We're getting to the point now where they are (the sheep) controlling most of the grass in the vineyard, so hopefully we'll be able to move away completely from herbicides in the near future." Last week, for the first time in Australia, purebred Babydolls registered by Babydoll Sheep Breeders were on public display at a farm field day in Moss Vale in the southern highlands of NSW. Jennie Curtis who heads up Babydoll Sheep Breeders Australia said it's not just vineyard owners flocking to the new breed. "I've had people ring me and say 'Can I have 100 and I say well, nobody's got 100 to sell you,' but we're getting there," Ms Curtis said. Tony Somers, who grows apples and pears for cider making near Taree on the mid-north coast of NSW, also introduced Babydoll sheep to tackle undergrowth. "We have these organic lawnmowers walking around, keeping the orchard floor free of growth ... we don't use any herbicide to control grass or weeds, the Babydolls do it all for us." "They're only small so they really don't get up into the canopy of the tree," he said. And breeders say there's also the added bonus of free fertiliser from manure, as well as the cute factor of the Babydoll breed for those public-facing operations. But Ms Helm, who also breeds Babydolls, admits it won't be the right solution for all vineyard and orchard owners, as time and money is needed for fencing, infrastructure and animal husbandry. "Are they prepared to make those changes to their infrastructure? Or do they go down the path of buying a machine that does the work," Ms Helm added.