Question about cograzing of livestock

Can sheep and geese share a pasture?

I'm in the process of getting my life sorted out, and one related activity is buying a home. If this all goes according to plan, I will have 25 acres and an old 5 bedroom farmhouse.

It does not have an established orchard.
I have goats and an alpaca paid for and bording.
I want to make an orchard.
However, I'm wondering about grass care/pasture care. I'm not very interested in using a gas-powered anything (lawn mower/bush hog) to keep the grass down. I'd like to employ animals.
I've been googling and, so far, I've heard geese and sheep both advised.
Geese don't eat the twigs and bark, and keep the grass short... sheep keep the grass short but also much bark and the new growth/low hanging limbs.

I'm looking for any advice that can be offered regarding:
Do the geese worry the sheep?
Can one start with geese while the orchard is developing and sheep be added later?
Which is a more permaculture-oriented animal? Can the geese keep the bugs down too?

Advice! Please! Give it to me!

 

First off, jealous. Hope to be you someday.
Okay, I don't specifically have an answer to your question, though I can't see why one flock would bother the other. I do have a book written by Joel Salatin that advises rotating different animals on the pasture in order to keep overgrazing and over fertilization of one type going on your grass. Too much of one fertilizer can burn the grass and overgrazing can kill it so it doesn't come back as well.
With all the acreage you have, though, I don't know if any of this will be a problem unless you have thousands of sheep and geese as far as the eyes can see.
Also, geese will definitely get rid of bugs. All birds love bugs!
Just sos ya know, none of this comes from my own experience, but research for the farm I plan to have someday.

 

I would definitely research first. Im sure about geese but I do know that with chickens, they have to be seperate from everything else because of the different germs they carry. So if you get chickens do not put them with any other livestock especially housing!!, and if you let all of your animals roam free (which was my case) they stay away from each other any way (i reside on 68 acres so lots of room to be seperate.)

I have had geese, they are great at eating grass, and bugs and also fertilazing your lawn. Sheep can definitley be added later but are nice to have because they will eat everything. I would even recommend miniature sheep. They are easy to care for it terms of shearing because they are small and also cheeper to feed in the winter. They are absolutley adorable and a couple of mini sheep could eat the grass all summer long.
If you get sheep and geese at the same time, they will grow up together and be used to each other. If you do get them together the geese will probably like the sheep and protect them if need be. Geese are great guard dogs so, it would be nice for them to be getting along instead of a goose attacking a sheep.
Also with sheep if you get them young you can train them like dogs. you can get then to know their boundaries and come when called.

 

pretty soon, you will have sheese-geeps running around :]
nah, but it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. What will be growing in this orchard?

 

just about any 4 legged grass eating herd animal is a good spot for geese,chicken,peacocks to walk along with them,my vet says that the barn fowl love to be around larger animals becuase the bigger grazers stir up all of the insects around them
this makes it easer for the geese,ducks,pea fowls,chickens, to swoop in and take the insects plus the pea fowls are the best trespasser guarders that have ever been invented!
i have never kept sheep but i have heard that they really love to graze the crap out of their pastures

 

Thank you everyone for your responses. The geese (3 pairs of pilgrim geese) are coming June 4th. Sheep will need to come next year, but we'll raise the fowl with the other animals (goats, alpaca and cow! goats and cow already here! alpaca coming in July).

This gives me a lot of hope. Now, to invest in fencing.