Pasture Question

[Haven]

I have a 2-3 acre pasture that has been planted with hay about a year ago and cut several times. As of right now we are leaving it alone since we will be fencing it off for goats in the spring. There is a lot of clover growing in it along with some Queen Annes Lace, etc. It is about 1 1/2 feet high right now.

Should we be doing anything to it to prep for the goats next year, or just leave it alone? I assume it will be really lush and tall by the time we get goats in there since we have a ton of fencing and barn building to do.

Also, is it possible to plant fruit trees or other good browse shrubs that will not get totally destroyed? I would love for the goats to be able to improve their diet by having year round access to to fruit, white pines and other good things, but I am unsure about how to keep the trees securely fenced so the trunks are not shredded.

For the deer, I wrapped black plastic hardware mesh around the trunks, and the trees havent been touched. But im afraid the goats would be a little rough on the mesh seeinghow they will be fenced in with the trees all the time.

[Pony]

I'm not sure about the pasture, but look forward to answers on that one.

The fruit tree question I can answer: No.

If you want to feed fruit and wood to them (oh, how they love the bark!) I suggest planting where the goats cannot get them and transporting the goodies to your goats.

A fruit tree -- even a mature one -- would not last half a day with my crew! The goats will eat right through plastic, mesh, barbed wire... They LOVE fruit trees!

[CaliannG]

On trees I want to keep, I do the regular deer-prevention mesh, then I also encircle the trunk with stock-wire-welded-fencing (3" width) so that it stands about 6 inches away from the tree trunk.

This intervention is the only reason my mother has any wisteria left.

Also, how bad the go after the trees is in direct proportion to how much area each goat has, how close the trees are to the place they go in and out of the pasture ( or to their barn/stable/shelter if it is in the pasture with them), and what is in the pasture.

Example: I have 8 acres of pasture and five goats. That is about 1 2/3 acre per goat. The pasture is a mixture of grasses, weeds, saplings, trees, and there is a pond there with trees around it, as well as a small orchard to one side.

Mom's wisteria was planted all around the barn and paddock, that they pass through, slowly, every day to get to the pasture. Therefore, the wisteria has had a hard time of it.

The orchard area is on the other side of the pond, which is surrounded by trash trees that the goats love. Therefore, although the goats LOVE the persimmons that have been falling regularly, the cedar elms beside the pond have gotten worse treatment, because they are on the way to the orchard.

The *trees* in the orchard have barely been touched....probably because, by the time they get to them, they are already full of cedar elm, sugarberry, hackberry, and other tree bark and leaves.

~grinz~ Therefore, my suggestion is to plant your fruit trees on the far end of the pasture from where the goats enter, and do the deer guard and stock fence around the trunks. By the time they mosey to them, they should have managed to get some other things in their stomachs to settle them.

[Alice In TX/MO]

My husband had a small pecan tree in the area that became the goat yard. They ate it down to the ground. When it sprouted from the roots, he put a 55 gallon metal drum around it to protect it.

Now, we've had to put wire *above* the barrel to protect the foliage.

Goats are persistent.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I would not plant any type of tree you actually wanted to mature in my goats pasture! They love all different kinds of bushes, small tree, etc.

As for your pasture, I'd leave it be until next year. I would think the winter will knock it down & it will start out short again in the spring.

[KSALguy]

get you some deer plot mix, or some other random seed mixes and spread it out in your pasture, let the whole thing just grow as it wants untill you put the goats on it, the weedyer and scrubbyer the better for goats,

trees will be distroyed relatively quickly, especially sence there is not any other trees on the place, if it was an over grown stand of trees then yes they would pick and choose through it and wouldnt exactly kill all of them, but if your just planting a few saplings here and there then its going to be a very differint situation,

[Haven]

Wow, I didn't realise they would chew through plastic mesh. The large barrels placed around small trees is a great idea. Im wondering now if I should just move the white pines so they are placed around the outside of the fence where they can nibble on stray branches that poke through but not get to the trunks.

What I want to do is create a more natural habitat for them so the plants available will add variety to their diet so they are healthier, and to cut down on supplemental feed.

I see a lot of people keeping goats on 'pasture' and I can't figure out why they keep it mowed. Is it just to keep things looking neat?

Right now I plan on just letting the pasture reclaim itself with whatever grows to create lots of browse...unless that is a bad idea for some reason...?

If you had to pick an ideal seed to spread around for maximun nutrition value, what would you choose? I thought I read that clover was good?

Sorry for all of the questions!

[Cannon_Farms]

clover is good because it puts nitrates back into the soil cutting down on fertilizer cost, any broad leaf plant will generally do that, like alfalfa is another good example.
I love clover and if you can plant sever different types it makes for a pretty bloom.
I use a mix of rye and deer plot mix for my goats in the winter, I dont have anything in the pasture in the summer because it helps reduce the worm issue

[Pony]

Originally Posted by Haven

If you had to pick an ideal seed to spread around for maximun nutrition value, what would you choose? I thought I read that clover was good?

Sorry for all of the questions!

Hey, don't apologize for asking questions. How else will you learn?

(and if everyone starts apologizing, I'm going to have to type about a million "mea culpas" for all my whining and questions and complaining!)

Shumway has a very nice permanent pasture mix. I was going to get it in this Spring, but the best laid plans, yada yada yada... Next Spring. For sure. (probably...)

You may like to read Gene Logsdon's updated book, Small-Scale Grain Raising.

[Heritagefarm]

what about mature trees? I would also like to have many trees out in the pasture; the erosion has to be stopped and several tons of new organic matter must be built. Without trees, this will be impossible. Will we have to maintain a permanent barrier between the goats and trees all the time? Also, Haven, according to the fact that you have wild carrot growing, you may want to check the calcium levels in your field. It's probably no big deal though...

[Haven]

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

what about mature trees? I would also like to have many trees out in the pasture; the erosion has to be stopped and several tons of new organic matter must be built. Without trees, this will be impossible. Will we have to maintain a permanent barrier between the goats and trees all the time? Also, Haven, according to the fact that you have wild carrot growing, you may want to check the calcium levels in your field. It's probably no big deal though...

I was also thinking of maybe building a small 4 sided wooden fence around each tree with 2x4s.

What does wild carrot say about calcium levels? Wild carrot and golden rod seem to grow like crazy all over this area of Ohio.

Thx for the seed info, Pony. i will look into it.

[Heritagefarm]

To quote from Science In Agriculture, by Arden Anderson:
Weed meaning: Excess Mg; Fe, Mo, Phospho-carbonate, Ca (minorly) deficiencies.
Enhancing materials: Mg, KCl, Fe tie-up (cold temperatures).
Correcting materials: Organic Fe, Molasses, Mo, Ce, Vit. B12, phospho-carbonates.

It's not that big a deal of a weed, but the burs are sure annoying.

[HappyFarmer]

Hubby mows the back pasture, just before the noxious weeds go to seed that the animals don't eat. Keeps those weeds in check. Also at that stage there is very little nutritional value to the field. That field gets very little grazing except for the horses, as our fencing isn't the tightest back there for anything but the larger bucks.

HF

[Minelson]

We mow our pastures to knock down weeds. We don't have enough critters for 10 acres. I like it better that way because we always have more than enough room which equals less damage. With the horses, when we move them to a different pasture we mow the pasture they were on and then let it rest for 30 days. In the fall we mow all the pastures, harrow and spray for weeds. 2 of the 3 pastures are unused through the winter.
With the goats, what you want them to eat they won't...and what you don't want them to eat they will.

[Haven]

Ok, but isn't having weeds in a goat pasture supposed to be a good thing? I thought they ate most of them and the brush keeps them up off the ground to reduce parasite loads?

[fishhead]

I gave away a bunch of that heavy corrugated 4" drain tile. The guy said he was going to split it and put it around the trunk of his apple trees to keep the deer from girdling them.

I think that would work but first the tree would have to be tall enough to the first branch.

[Heritagefarm]

Originally Posted by Haven

Ok, but isn't having weeds in a goat pasture supposed to be a good thing? I thought they ate most of them and the brush keeps them up off the ground to reduce parasite loads?

I think Greg Judy deliberately promotes certain weed's growth for his goats.

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by Haven

Ok, but isn't having weeds in a goat pasture supposed to be a good thing? I thought they ate most of them and the brush keeps them up off the ground to reduce parasite loads?

If we let ours go it would turn to all weeds in a heartbeat. My goats like grass and spend more time on that then in the bush.

[SilverFlame819]

We've had shade trees and fruit trees in with our goats. Once the bark on the shade trees gets thick enough, they don't touch them, but the fruit trees seem to keep a fine "bark" that's easily shredded.

You can put three stakes in the ground around the tree, and put good heavy duty wiring around it (small enough that they can't get their heads through. You can also drop one of those 55-gallon barrels around the 3 stakes instead. But if you go the barrel route, you'll have to make sure it's secured down, or they'll slide it up the stakes and go under. I like the stakes and wire route, because you can put the stakes wide enough that as the tree is growing foliage, they won't be able to touch it... Then when the tree gets tall enough that they can't reach the branches, you can move the stakes in more (so when the fruit falls, it falls outside of the wired area)...

[motdaugrnds]

Your idea of providing a variety for goats is a good one as they are indeed "browsers". As have been stated in here, goats will destroy any fruit/nut tree they have access to. They will either eat all the leaves or chew up the trunks.

I can tell you what we did that is working very well. (We let our herd free-roam the majority of the time.) We planted "lespedeza shrubs" in various locations. (After 3-5 yrs of growth, if you mow it down to the ground, it will come back from the roots as an impenatrable hedge. It is healthy food for goats and goats love it.) We kept the goats away from where they were planted until they started losing their leaves in preparation for the winter. Then we let them eat what they wanted each year. (I also sectioned off an area for these shrubs, fencing them in so neither goats nor dear can reach them. By doing this, they drop their seeds everywhere due to the wind and create new little shrubs each year all over the pasture.)

As to planting fruit/nut "trees", we place a 4'fence around each tree TWICE (each 2-1/2' from the other). This keeps the deer (and goats) from reaching the little trees as they grow. When they are larger, we will wrap their trunks as we do all our trees we don't want the goats to kill. (We wrap the trunks 2-3 times with 2" x 4" welded wire.) This works too!

I do hope your grass is "endophyte free". Most do not realize that most American grasses (when permitted to mature) are not; and thus, causes hard knots in the udders of dairy goats. (I learned this the hard way. It is a correctable condition in the udder if you do not permit the goats to grace such grasses or feed it to them in the form of dry hay for at least a year.)