Bamboo ?

[Phil V.]

Is bamboo harmful to goats? I've looked and can't find anything unless I'm looking in the wrong place. It's more of the decorative type and not used for anything of use.

[GreenMomma]

I looked into it a while back... we were looking for some privacy for a specific area and I had read that it made good fodder for many of the animals we keep. I don't know what I did with my notes though- I think they are on my old computer that crashed. There were differences in the types of bamboo and they are suppposed to be very difficult to contain (to keep from spreading like crazy).

I would still like to have some planted, but we couldn't come up with a good way to not let it get crazy for what we can afford for now.

[masseyandy]

Goats will eat bamboo and be fine. Please don't plant bamboo. My father in law planted some years ago and we would trim it and feed it to goats and it just kept growing no matter how much we chopped. It took a bulldozer to get it cleared off and I am still having to dig up and mow over it and it is spreading. A gardening show said the only way to contain it was to plant it in a 4 ft deep steel container.

[TXWildcat]

get a clumping variety, not a runner. you can also eat bamboo shoots. not real tasty though


Live life in such a way that the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral.

[parrotman]

Planting bamboo is a personal choice and should be made after you know all the fact.
I planted bamboo, the running type, several years ago and have never regretted it for a moment. It is planted in a place that it can spread in all directions without causing anyone any issues or problems.
Just this morning I had to cut a lot of it down to ground level because of the extremely harsh winter we had. The canes froze and dried. This does not affect the root system whatsoever as it has already started to send up new shoots. That which died could have stayed, but it would just be naked canes without leaves.
That which I did cut I gave to the goats and they ate it without hesitation. It is not poisonous to goats or any other animals for that matter. It is the mainstay of the diet of the panda.

[simi-steading]

I got more than my share of the running kind.. Mine froze and died over the winter too.. I inherited this... yes, I have uses for some of it, but I can't use all that keeps spreading everywhere.. It's a ways from the house but I've watched over a year and a half as it's gotten probably 25 yards closer..

Once you cut it, it's about impossible to get rid of too... it doesn't decompose, you can't burn it because it explodes.. about all you can do is chip it, and I don't have a big chipper..

I will have one heck of a mess now with all the dead standing and new stuff coming up in it. I don't have time to get out and cut it.. I'm told it's been there 7 or 8 years and was a small patch. Now it's half a football field worth... Amazing how much of my time it takes just trying to keep it somewhat in check.

[Phil V.]

The bamboo that I have is the runner type. It was planted by my one sister in the 60's. Understand on the hard to control part. Thanks for the replies. Wanted to make sure that it wouldn't hurt the girls that I'm getting.

[Awnry Abe]

My mom lives in a senior maintenance-free living community. I get the honor of being the maintenance-free portion of one her neighbor's bamboo planting. She has the a single clump. The first year, I could wrap my arms around the whole bundled harvested in the fall. Now it takes a trailer. Why am I so eager to collect them for her? Because they make excellent winter roughage for our goats. And after the goats nibble them clean, I have nifty rods for things like beating the cats away.