Greetings,
We have a fledgling orchard of 16 fruit trees, transplanted this year. Within a year or two the orchard will comprise approximately 30 trees- apple, pear, nectarine, cherry, plum, and peach. The area is fenced off from large livestock (at present cattle and horses), and we hope the deer will stay off too (4' tall woven wire, a strand of barbed wire above it at apprx. 5 ft. Eventually a hot wire will be about 5" out at waist-high to keep the livestock off for good). Each tree has a 30" tall ~4ft. diameter wire around it, which has 1"x1" holes for the bottom 15" and 2"x1" holes for the top 15"; this will hopefully protect against rabbits.
This is/will be a semi-dwarf orchard. Above, within the woven-wire fenced-in area, is a 70'x200' split-level garden site with water plumbed in (pvc

) and approximately 25'x200' of open ground between the garden (uphill) and the orchard (downhill sloping north; the idea is to delay blooms in springtime). This 25'x200' may be grape vines, cherry bushes, chicken pasture, more fruit trees, or some other idea that comes up in the next year or two before development.
My knowledge of pasture management is limited. At best I can say that we have orchard grass, fescue, white and red clover, wild amaranth (pigweed), burdoc, dandelions, and some other plants I have not identified. We are in zone 6b (6/7) in south-central KY.
How would you manage the grasses growing amidst the trees in an orchard such as this?
I am considering the following:
Early years:
[li]Geese and chickens grazing the orchard (are the 30" tall wires around the fledgling trees adequate protection?)[/li]
[li]Infrequent, regular mowing to use as mulch around trees[/li]
At approximately year ten I would consider:
[li]Sheep[/li]
[li]Goats[/li]
[li]Poultry[/li]
[li]Mowing for mulch[/li]
At year twenty I would be tempted to let supervised cattle graze, in addition to the options mentioned above.
The landowner, my father, would like to try to introduce sheep as early as next year by throwing up some kind of netting around each individual tree.
I wonder what you would consider is a wise course of action (animal use, food forest with understory plantings, mowing only, other options).
In addition, I have a mowing-specific question:
What are some of the different scenarios for optimal mowing? With this question I am thinking about how to maximize natural re-seeding for the orchard grass and clovers. When would be the best time to cut? I am open to alternative management suggestions.
Thank you for your time!