Safe Woodland Browsing Rotation?

[Old Haunt Farm]

Hello,

I'm really hoping to get our 2 girls into the woods for some much needed browsing & change of scene.  They love to hike with us & browse as they go, but we've never put them on rotation before.  I've tried to identify the plants that make up the undergrowth, but all I can say for sure is that I see some ferns & wildflowers + many rogue raspberry shoots. Everything is so thick that I definitely can't be sure if something is poisonous.

Any experience out there with this?  Should we go for it, or is it too risky?

Our girls do go straight for everything that is bad for them if they are let out into the landscaped yard to play with our son, so they seem to have no sense of danger.

Grateful for any advice. :-)

Cheers!

[Julieanne Cook]

Just my two cents, but I live in a woodland area, and my goats seem to know exactly what to eat and what not to. They love oak and turn their noses up at maple, but the maple variety I have is sweetgum. I have lots of patches of morning glories at the edge of the woods, and they never touch them. Contrary to what is often said about goats, I have found mine to be very selective about what they eat. Not to say that they still couldn't get themselves in trouble, but I think they are much more savvy than they're given credit for.

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

I know there are lots of people who love the Fiasco site, but there is a lot of old and outdated info on there, especially the drug info. I don't think I've seen her change anything in the 13 years I've had goats, which is a very bad sign because a lot of research has been done in the last 10 years on goats -- more than ever, actually. Many, many things that people believed to be true in the 1990s has been proven to be wrong in the last 10 years, which is why you see so much contradictory info.

[Rosalyn Abbott]

Deborah, I actually saw it on the Fiasco Farm website: 

"Maple Trees, leaves & bark - (goats will readily strip the bark and kill the tree) NOT Red Maples (Red Maples can be toxic)"

Although I honestly thought that around here, where I live and where there is loads of red maple, that horses were the only livestock to worry about.  I may post on our local goat facebook group.  We have loads of red maple on our property, there is nowhere that the goats would be away from it.

Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

I've never heard of goats having a problem with any type of maple. Can you link the list where you saw this? Our goats have spent many months grazing in maple groves.

Rosalyn Abbott said:

On that note, Deborah, what about red maple?  I know it is definitely toxic for horses but thought it may be fine for other livestock, then saw it listed as poisonous for goats.  Do you know if that is ok?

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

It's totally your call. Some sources online say it's not poisonous to goats, which usually means it isn't, but I don't have any experience with deadly nightshade, which I'm assuming is the one you're talking about.

Meg said:

So you think we can just leave it? I've heard of animals staying away from poisonous plants before, but I don't want to have a sick/dead doe either! Although, getting it all out seems impossible!! 

[Meg]

So you think we can just leave it? I've heard of animals staying away from poisonous plants before, but I don't want to have a sick/dead doe either! Although, getting it all out seems impossible!! 

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

I've never heard of goats being poisoned by nightshade, but when I was very new to goats, I let them into our garden in the fall to clean up, and they did not touch the tomato and pepper plants, which are in the nightshade family. Even now, when they have gotten themselves into the garden when no one is looking, they have never touched any of the nightshade plants. They totally cleaned out a strawberry bed though! They were fine, but the strawberries never recovered.

Meg said:

Deborah, we will have our goats on less than an acre, and we have nightshade that we just found... Can I safely get rid of it? Can I let them out in this at all? It's our main lot, so I'm not sure what else I would do. The only thing I thought of doing was trying to pull all the plants we see and then checking for it every few weeks/months since we'll probably be out there with them a lot. Would that be good enough? Thanks!

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

I've never heard of goats having a problem with any type of maple. Can you link the list where you saw this? Our goats have spent many months grazing in maple groves.

Rosalyn Abbott said:

On that note, Deborah, what about red maple?  I know it is definitely toxic for horses but thought it may be fine for other livestock, then saw it listed as poisonous for goats.  Do you know if that is ok?

[Meg]

Deborah, we will have our goats on less than an acre, and we have nightshade that we just found... Can I safely get rid of it? Can I let them out in this at all? It's our main lot, so I'm not sure what else I would do. The only thing I thought of doing was trying to pull all the plants we see and then checking for it every few weeks/months since we'll probably be out there with them a lot. Would that be good enough? Thanks!

Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

When goats have a wide variety of plants from which to choose, they do a good job of staying away from anything that will hurt them. Most of those lists of poisonous plants for goats incorrectly include many plants, such as oak and walnut, which is fine for them. Goats actually have a much higher tolerance for poisonous plants than do sheep, cows, or horses.

[Rosalyn Abbott]

On that note, Deborah, what about red maple?  I know it is definitely toxic for horses but thought it may be fine for other livestock, then saw it listed as poisonous for goats.  Do you know if that is ok?

Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

When goats have a wide variety of plants from which to choose, they do a good job of staying away from anything that will hurt them. Most of those lists of poisonous plants for goats incorrectly include many plants, such as oak and walnut, which is fine for them. Goats actually have a much higher tolerance for poisonous plants than do sheep, cows, or horses.

[Old Haunt Farm]

Thank you, Deborah!  The girls will be thankful as well, I'm sure.