Chemical herbicides, especially if they are blank sprayed (still a very common practice in Champagne today), are known to be bad for the soil, water and air. Mechanical weeding, on the other hand, could damage the vine trunks or roots and potentially increase the farmer's carbon footprint.
Studies have pointed out that both chemical herbicides and mechanical weeding can cause soil compaction and bring on soil erosion. Moreover, both options require oil – a declining commodity ever since the Iran war started – whether it is the diesel used by the tractor or petroleum compounds that can be found (for a variety of reasons) in chemical herbicides. Luckily there is a third option that is not dependent on oil, and it has the extra benefit of enriching the soil: reintroducing animals in the vineyard.
Even if today very few winegrowers actively deploy animals in their vineyard management strategy, animals have historically been vineyard helpers.
For instance, long before the tractor appeared, the soil was plowed by horse and small farms often also had chickens roam in between the vines, or geese to protect the whole farm. However, in the monocultural approach that has dominated agriculture for most of the last century, animals disappeared from the vinescape. The last holdout was probably the draft horse, but it was swiftly replaced by the tractor in the "trente glorieuse", the period between 1970 and 2000, that industrialized viticulture.
However, at the beginning of this century, some winegrowers reviewed their practices and horses began to make a tentative comeback. They were originally spotted plowing biodynamic vineyards, partly because they embody the core values of biodynamic teaching – a holistic and regenerative approach to farming – and partly because they bring relief from soil compaction. Both of these reasons have been confirmed scientifically.
A 2021 study about the use of workhorses on vineyard estates concluded that tilling by horse increased the winegrower's observation and understanding of the agro-ecosystem, driven by the need to involve all senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and potential taste) as part of the working relationship with the horse.
A 2016 thesis comparing the use of tractors and horses in the vineyards on the soil, grape must and labor, affirmed that vineyards worked by horse had a "better soil structure, bacteria and soil life as well as a better conductibility and gas exchange with a lower soil compaction".
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Despite that same thesis concluded that the labor requirements to plow by horse were more than double those of tilling by tractor, horses can today be spotted in a variety of vineyards, regardless of the farming philosophy or vineyard density.
But Champagne, or even France, is not the only place horses have been put back to work; one can find draft horses at Gramona in the Penedes, Cayuse Vineyard (Walla Walla), Churton in New Zealand or even Odfjell in Chile.
Counting sheep
Still, horses are not the only animals working in vineyards today. In New Zealand, sheep have long been spotted in between grapevine rows during the winter months. They keep the grass short, clear the weeds under the vines, and some breeds even clean the trunks. Many sheep farmers are happy for a new grazing opportunity in an environment with a low sheep worm burden, seeing vineyard soils are generally parasite free.
Paddy Borthwick, a New Zealand winegrower and sheep farmer has been working with sheep in the vineyard for the past 15 years. He uses them for winter grazing and for leaf-plucking in spring. At the beginning of winter, the sheep are brought from the farm to the vineyard for a 10-week grazing retreat; Borthwick found a balance at 15 sheep per hectare to keep the grass short, without negatively impacting the soil.
A 2018 study on the ecological and economic benefits of integrating sheep in the vineyards concluded that winter grazing by sheep had a positive ecological and economic impact by reducing herbicide and mowing needs.
Furthermore, it noted that, when sheep were reintroduced into the vines, it also significantly cut labor costs, minimizing mowing costs. This was confirmed by Borthwick. "The benefit at leaf plucking is that the sheep also take the tops of weeds, clover and grass out and thus hamper the vertical growth of their roots under the vine."
Borthwick has so far not completed any soil analysis to track the impact of sheep on soil fertility, however a 2022 UC Davies study, analyzing four integrated sheep-vineyard systems in Northern California concluded that long-term vineyard grazing tends to "stimulate soil biological processes that improve soil health functioning" (especially nitrogen and potassium cycling) as well as "increase carbon sequestration in the soil". It seems sheep excrements when absorbed by the soil are a natural source of compost.
French soil specialists Claude and Lydia Bourguignon have come to the same conclusion and to prove this point they have integrated winter-grazing sheep in their Domaine Laroque-d'Antan vineyard in Cahors. And even in the dense Champagne vineyards, sheep are occasionally spotted.
Thomas Perceval, a small organic grower in Chamery, has moved sheep around his different plots for the last decade. And Moët & Chandon has worked with sheep in their vineyards for at least five years, and the last two years their sheep service provider, Ovicep, has been inundated with demands from other producers.
Nevertheless, it is important to remember that copper, a substance used to treat downy mildew, is toxic to sheep, so it may pay to test the grass for copper residue before integrating sheep into the vineyard.
Pigging out
Pigs, especially the New Zealand kunekune breed, have also proven to be great vineyard helpers. They are generally used at the end of fall and throughout the winter to clear vineyard floor beds.
Besides clearing the brush and unpicked grapes, they forage the soil for bugs and slugs, thus destroying grass and weed root structures in the process. They are also known to significantly increase the soil organic matter in a short period of time; therefore, it is important to move them regularly especially as an extended stay can do more damage than good.
In Champagne, several growers have experimented with pigs in their vineyards. Cedric Moussé, of Champagne Moussé, has integrated several animals at different times and in different vineyards, and in his experience, which he backed up by soil analyses, pigs have had the biggest impact on vineyard soil fertility, even boosting yields in vineyards with fanleaf disease. They also are the most effective to clear deep-rooted, difficult to remove weeds.
Chickens, especially scratch and till breeds, are better suited to aerate the soil, and increase its water retention, something Mousé has noticed to make a significant difference in his clay-dense soils. The Bourguignons have come to a similar conclusion in Cahors, and Kendall Jackson have had chickens foraging in their vineyards since 2011.
But chickens are not the only working vineyard bird: since 2020 an army of around 2000 ducks have been on pest control duty, eating slugs and snails in the Vergenoegd Löw vineyards in South Africa. By now they have also become a real tourist attraction.
Staying in South Africa, Reynecke estate, has long had a Nguni cattle presence during the winter months in its vineyards. They also use the cattle to plow the soil as part of their holistic biodynamic approach. Cows are rarely seen in vineyards, yet a study published this January concluded that having oxen graze between fall and spring over a five-year period, at a ratio of five to seven oxen per hectare, enhanced the soil carbon and soil structure in alpine vineyards, with no evident negative effects.
To conclude, animal integration in vineyards comes with significant ecological and economic benefits.
It seems that whatever animal is introduced, the soil health is positively impacted, and according to a range of academic studies, the grape quality is enhanced.
Moreover, opening up one's vineyards to sheep or cows during the winter months, can significantly reduce mowing costs at the beginning of spring. Lastly, foraging animals are awesome pest controllers that enhance the soil's capacity to hold water, not to speak of their unlimited marketing potential.
