The land my family and I have purchased, 38 acres, is all forested. It is made up primarily of hardwoods (black walnuts, oaks, others unidentified) that have been growing for about 100 years since the land was last farmed. As I dream and read about having goats on our future homestead, I am trying to figure out how to feed the goats off of our land. I know that goats are browsers and not graziers, like sheep, but most books still seem to discuss having "pastures" for your goats. When I picture a pasture, I imagine acres of grass and I am not sure how that works for goats and their eating habits.
I also do not have any cleared land for pastures at this point. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to make a 'pasture' without cutting down most of the trees. Is there a way to pasture your goats in a forested setting? Or is anyone grazing/browsing their goats in a more treed/forested setting?
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All cool things to learn about. Another thing about black walnuts or 2.... They most plants under or near them so plan any gardens far away, and for those you keep- some people really like the walnuts fir various edible (for humans) things. I have a restaurant coming to get some of my walnuts this summer. I will post a pic of the wood when I am on computer and can figure it out!
Thanks Judy for the info on goats and black walnut. We are currently trying to get the money together to pay for the building of our house out on the land. Our builder came back to us with a proposed building cost way over our hoped for budget. So we are considering all our options and selling some of the timber is definately one of them. We need to clear the house site and the driveway anyway and I probably need to clear some sort of pasture area or alteast open up the forest canopy also for the goats so I might as well make some money off of the trees instead of just making them into firewood.
We have never sold timber before so I am just now trying to figure out how to do that. We definately do not want a clear cut done, just selective clearing. Of course we have also never bought land, owned a house, started a homestead, owned chickens or goats, etc. before. So this whole thing is quite an adventure into the unknown for us.
Hi Aaron- be aware that some people feel black walnut can be toxic to goats and sheep. But good news is that the wood is very high in value so you might be able to carefully have a forestry person cut down areas that have the walnut which would encourage growth of weeds and young brush. Someone told me their small stand of black walnuts was their kids future college tuition.
Also goats adore low growing brush like blueberries, invasive creeping vines and roses. So maybe there are a few areas that have some of that.
Julieanne, thank you for the reply. Yep stretching that feed bill as far as possible is definately one of my goals while also providing the best food for my goats that I can. Being down here in South Carolina, the woods are usually more like jungle with all the undergrowth, but I think that is due to tmost of our local woods having been more recently clear cut with pines, brambles, and brush dominating as the forest comes back. On the plus and minus side my land has not been cut since the last farmer closed up shop on it over 100 years ago. Makes for a beautiful piece of property but very little undergrowth, sigh :)
I like the idea of the loppers. I should have plenty of leaves for them to chow on. I also plan on growing comfrey and other supplemental feed items myself. I really would like to provide as much home grown food as possible for the goats.
I live in what sounds like a similar wooded property. There is some undergrowth, but a lot of it is evergreen (holly, mountain laurel) which the goats can't and don't touch. My goats will eat some of the vines that grow, but not a lot. Not sure why, because most goats will clear vines in no time. Mine are kind of prima donnas and only want what they want.
What I've done is to purchase some really good loppers (I call mine Cindy, bad joke, I know) and cut down saplings and branches for them to eat. It's gotten so as soon as they see Cindy, they go crazy because they know I'll be bringing them some juicy branches of oak, hickory, etc. They love the fresh leaves, but if we have to cut down a tree here and there they will still eat the leaves once they've dried.
You'll probably just have to experiment as you go to see what your goats like. But having lots of browse like that really helps stretch the hay and cut down on your feed bill, in addition to being good for the goats.
Unfortunately, atleast for the goats, there is very little undergrowth under all the trees. The top canopy is pretty complete. The land is fairly clear except all the for big tall trees. I would say this section of land would probably be classified as climax forest.
I was thinking that I would need to selectively clear some trees to get some more light down to ground level to encourage some undergrowth and grasses to grow but I would definately like to keep as much of the forested feel of the land as possible. From your comments is sounds like I might need to work amongst the big trees to push the land back a few stages in forest succession to an earlier stage with more of the pioneer species, ie brush and undergrowth.
But it sounds like you guys are saying that if I can get some undergrowth going that my future goats might be happy and healthy amongst all the tall trees?
Goats do much better on exactly what you have rather than pasture! The problem with pasture is that worms crawl up the wet grass and are consumed by the goats. This is how they get worms. I live in a forest too and my goats have never had worms. They WILL completely clear out anything they can reach though but since you have large acreage, they will be in goat heaven. Not sure where you live but I live where rhododendron and mountain laurel grow and they are deadly poisonous for goats. Keep that in mind. As I move my goats to new areas, I have to inspect for mountain laurel and rhodo regularly.
Goats can eat pasture, but they are intended to be browsers of brush and their ruminant stomachs do best on a variety of brush. I think the concept of goats being on pasture is a modern thing. Anyway, they can do fine clearing out the understory of your forest and they will get shade from the trees while they are "working". What is the understory like? Are there weeds, goldenrod, maybe multiflora? They love all of that. We are on a hilly south facing slope in western MA, some is forested and some has been cleared but has lots of brush, and there is a little pasture. We use a flexible electric fence with a solar battery which is very easy to move. We let the goats browse in there and move it every 4 to 7 days depending on how over grown it is and how long it takes them to clear the area. It is a fine balance between having them complete the brush clearing job and overgrazing. You have to be careful that they do not overgraze because they can compromise the land, and also you want to keep them rotating so that there is not excessive poop build up which would lead to parasite problems. Rotational grazing is also great as part of a natural parasite control protocol. One other thing, if you use an electric fence, you will have to clear a small path of brush where the fence is placed, otherwise if there is too much brush touching the upper part of the fence then it will short out and you'll loose your charge. Using a combo of animals is a great way to clear the forest. Pigs are great too. NOFA is an excellent resource on this.
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Enjoy the learning!!!'
We have never sold timber before so I am just now trying to figure out how to do that. We definately do not want a clear cut done, just selective clearing. Of course we have also never bought land, owned a house, started a homestead, owned chickens or goats, etc. before. So this whole thing is quite an adventure into the unknown for us.
Also goats adore low growing brush like blueberries, invasive creeping vines and roses. So maybe there are a few areas that have some of that.
I say hi from Massachusetts! Judy
I like the idea of the loppers. I should have plenty of leaves for them to chow on. I also plan on growing comfrey and other supplemental feed items myself. I really would like to provide as much home grown food as possible for the goats.
I live in what sounds like a similar wooded property. There is some undergrowth, but a lot of it is evergreen (holly, mountain laurel) which the goats can't and don't touch. My goats will eat some of the vines that grow, but not a lot. Not sure why, because most goats will clear vines in no time. Mine are kind of prima donnas and only want what they want.
What I've done is to purchase some really good loppers (I call mine Cindy, bad joke, I know) and cut down saplings and branches for them to eat. It's gotten so as soon as they see Cindy, they go crazy because they know I'll be bringing them some juicy branches of oak, hickory, etc. They love the fresh leaves, but if we have to cut down a tree here and there they will still eat the leaves once they've dried.
You'll probably just have to experiment as you go to see what your goats like. But having lots of browse like that really helps stretch the hay and cut down on your feed bill, in addition to being good for the goats.
I was thinking that I would need to selectively clear some trees to get some more light down to ground level to encourage some undergrowth and grasses to grow but I would definately like to keep as much of the forested feel of the land as possible. From your comments is sounds like I might need to work amongst the big trees to push the land back a few stages in forest succession to an earlier stage with more of the pioneer species, ie brush and undergrowth.
But it sounds like you guys are saying that if I can get some undergrowth going that my future goats might be happy and healthy amongst all the tall trees?
Goats do much better on exactly what you have rather than pasture! The problem with pasture is that worms crawl up the wet grass and are consumed by the goats. This is how they get worms. I live in a forest too and my goats have never had worms. They WILL completely clear out anything they can reach though but since you have large acreage, they will be in goat heaven. Not sure where you live but I live where rhododendron and mountain laurel grow and they are deadly poisonous for goats. Keep that in mind. As I move my goats to new areas, I have to inspect for mountain laurel and rhodo regularly.
Goats can eat pasture, but they are intended to be browsers of brush and their ruminant stomachs do best on a variety of brush. I think the concept of goats being on pasture is a modern thing. Anyway, they can do fine clearing out the understory of your forest and they will get shade from the trees while they are "working". What is the understory like? Are there weeds, goldenrod, maybe multiflora? They love all of that. We are on a hilly south facing slope in western MA, some is forested and some has been cleared but has lots of brush, and there is a little pasture. We use a flexible electric fence with a solar battery which is very easy to move. We let the goats browse in there and move it every 4 to 7 days depending on how over grown it is and how long it takes them to clear the area. It is a fine balance between having them complete the brush clearing job and overgrazing. You have to be careful that they do not overgraze because they can compromise the land, and also you want to keep them rotating so that there is not excessive poop build up which would lead to parasite problems. Rotational grazing is also great as part of a natural parasite control protocol. One other thing, if you use an electric fence, you will have to clear a small path of brush where the fence is placed, otherwise if there is too much brush touching the upper part of the fence then it will short out and you'll loose your charge. Using a combo of animals is a great way to clear the forest. Pigs are great too. NOFA is an excellent resource on this.