Our Partnership with Terralana

What do the dags from sheep and a Central Otago cherry orchard have in common? Not a whole lot… until now. We’ve recently teamed up with the legends at Terralana to trial their innovative wool-based weed matting across parts of the orchard and we’re pretty excited about what it means for our trees, the soil, and the future of wool waste in farming.

Terralana takes waste dag wools from sheep (the stuff that’s usually discarded) and turn it into 100% natural weed suppressant mats. These mats sit under the trees, helping to:

• Suppress weeds naturally (no chemicals required)
  
  
• Insulate the soil. Which is especially handy with our frosty Central Otago winters!
  
  
• Lock in moisture by shading the ground from the hot summer sun
  
  
• Slowly biodegrade, returning goodness back to the soil over time

Even the pegs used to hold the mats down are biodegradable, meaning there’s nothing left behind but healthier soil and happier trees.

Why we jumped at the chance

We’re always looking for ways to make our orchard more sustainable, and this partnership is exactly what we love. Kiwi ingenuity, waste reduction, and genuine benefit for the planet. We love working with companies that think differently and care about the same stuff we do, and Terra Lana ticks every box. We’re so stoked to be trialling these innovative mats through winter and into the next growing season. The orchard’s looking tidy, the trees are keeping happy, and we’ll keep you updated on how the mats perform through blossom and into harvest.

Check them out

If you’re curious about Terralana and what they’re doing for landscapes around Aotearoa, jump over to terralana.co.nz — it’s worth a look. Who knew sheep dags and cherries could be such a good combo!!

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