Browse for Goats?

SLFarmMI · #1 08/31/13, 08:29 PM

DH and I are in the process of planning pastures for goats and sheep. I know that goats like to browse so we were planning to plant some bushes within the pastures. My question for all you goat experts is, what kinds of bushes would be good for goats? We are in southeast Michigan spitting distance from the Ohio border if that helps. Thanks for any help you can give.

Clovers_Clan · #2 08/31/13, 09:18 PM

Any bushes you plant will need a respite from the goats for a good portion of the year. There are operations that rent goats out to kill off scrub, and they do a great job of it. Not sure how much time you want to spend on management but another option is to plant the shrubs just outside the pasture fence. Then cut branches as needed, or osier and harvest. I'm in Georgia so I don't know much about what will grow there, but oaks and mulberries are great fodder and both bounce back readily from aggressive pruning.

fishhead · #3 08/31/13, 09:43 PM

My goats loved honey locust and it held leaves later in the fall than almost every other browse. A word of warning though and that is they are kind of invasive although I think they could be killed off by cutting them to the ground several years in a row while the goats browsed on the new growth.

parrotman · #4 09/01/13, 06:50 AM

Blackberries...goats love them and they spread easily. Whatever you do plant, you're going to have to protect it from the goats until the plant is well established. Seedlings or young plants won't survive if not growing well before the goats get to them.

Alice In TX/MO · #5 09/01/13, 07:00 AM

I plant a deer browse seed mix in the pasture.

https://store.evolved.com/home/produ...rowandgro.aspx

SLFarmMI · #6 09/01/13, 07:22 AM

Thanks everyone.

Bret4207 · #7 09/01/13, 08:01 AM

Don't waste your money planting brush for goats. If they eat it enough to pay for it, they will kill it. Goats will do fine on grasses and weeds that grow in your area. They just "like" brush and leaves more.

Whisperwindkat · #8 09/02/13, 05:51 AM

I would plant things outside the fence that they can reach some of themselves and you can easily cut and toss over the fence. My first to plant would be oak trees in the "red" oak family, second would be blackberries, and third would be a border around the fence of sericea lespediza. There are many others but by planting outside the fence you are giving some protection to the plant but still able to provide browse. The oaks will be high in tannins which will help control parasites along with the lespedeza which if cut often enough can be kept under control. You would need to check to see if you can plant the lespedeza since some places it is illegal to do so because it is an invasive species. Honeysuckle vine has held up well on our place to heavy browsing. It comes back heavy every year and the goats love it. Hope that helps, Kat

Backfourty,MI. · #9 09/02/13, 06:09 AM

Ours love the Olive bushes that grow all over our wooded areas here. They will eat them up & eventually kill them though like someone else said.
If you have any thick brushy or wooded areas run your pasture fencing right in & around them if you can, the goats will Love it.

o&itw · #10 09/02/13, 06:35 AM

Uh goats or not... you never want to plant Russian olive. It sort of like Multiflor rose, only 10 times worse.

If you are going to plant something in your pasture, plant red clover or some clover that does well in your area. I don't know if tripple crown blackberries will grow up there, but if they will, plant a row of them about 3 feet away from the outside of the fence on the house side.

motdaugrnds · #11 09/02/13, 08:19 AM

I can tell you what has worked here for years...without the goats killing it.

I planted tri-color lespedeza "shrubs". They came in bundles and I ordered 1,000 at a time, planting them every few feet around the back of our pasture where the goats were not allowed most of the time. I also planted some in the middle of the pasture, building a "double" fence around it that deer will not jump into in order to protect it for the first few years. This type of lespedeza needs a couple of years to form a good root system. Can let the goats eat it then all the way to the ground after it has seeded and they will not kill it. For around the boundaries, if you mow it to within about 6-12 inches from the ground when it is 5 yrs old, it will come back as an impenatrable hedge that you can either keep trimmed or let grow as it will. The lespedeza we planted inside the double-fence in the middle of the pasture blows its seeds all over the pasture every single year, which provides a high quality/nurturative browse every year. (The mother plants are left alone to do this.) Once this shrub gets a good root system on it, not even our droughts have killed it.

dozedotz · #12 09/02/13, 08:58 AM

Motdaugrnds, Do you happen to know what the Latin name is for this "shrub." Sometimes there are so many names for a certain plant...especially in different areas of the country.

aart · #13 09/03/13, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by o&itw

Uh goats or not... you never want to plant Russian olive. It sort of like Multiflor rose, only 10 times worse.

DITTO 10x!! That stuff is terrible, will take over! I'd get goats just to get rid of it, but there's also wild cherry all over the place too.