# Do sheep eat blackberry brush like goats do?



## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

I have always assumed that I don't have enough pasture for sheep, but if you can stock them 10 to the acre on improved pasture, maybe I could have a few here. But they'd have to chow down on the blackberries. Do they?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Our hair sheep will eat the tender young canes growing close to the ground, and they'll eat the leaves off the older, tougher canes as far up as they can reach, but they don't eat those older, woody canes.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

Yup, mine too. I specifically chose Finnsheep because they were rumored to browse rather than graze. And they do. They will eat blackberry leaves before grain. They do leave the old tough stems, and I have one really, well, retarded sheep who will push her way into the center of a blackberry clump, eat everything she can reach, then when she tries to back out, her wool gets caught and she just stands there until someone comes to rescue her. It's always a relief when I shear her for the summer and she is slick!

My Icelandic ram doesn't care for blackberries, so maybe it is really a breed-thing.
Kit


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## Plowpoint (May 2, 2012)

Can I ever tell you a funny story about sheep and berry plants...

This is a very old farm, having been in the family since 1746. Sometime between then and now, one of the patriarch Plowpoints planted a nice stand of raspberry bushes. It was about 20 feet wide and maybe 250 feet long. Everyone in the family went there when raspberry season came...

In 2008 I decided to pasture my sheep nearby but thought, "with such big thorns, they will never go in there." In two weeks the heritage raspberry plants were grazed beyond sight. "No big deal", I thought, "I'll fence them out of there and they will grow back next year..."

They have not grown back since. With their shallow root systems, the sheep in grazing them, ripped them out by the roots, ate the canes and were literally grazed out of existence.

There are people in my family who still have not forgiven my sheep for doing that!


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Yes the sheep stripped out our black berry plants. Didn't go there first but they didn't miss them either.


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

My grandfather lived on the oregon coast. He had a pasture that was over run with blackberries. He bought goats and sheep. THe goats got up and pulled the canes down and ate a little. The sheep ate almost everything and come fall he only had to burn and he had meat animals to sell.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

yes! Mine do.


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## Plowpoint (May 2, 2012)

It really is amazing to watch what a flock of sheep can do to improve a pasture as well. I had some poison ivy on this one field, and they mob grazed it out of existence in the first part of the season.

Sheep love weeds...now that is an understatement!


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Well, that is a revelation to me because I thought only goats would eat blackberries. Do sheep eat nettles, by any chance?


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Of course not! Drat!!


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