# Will Goats eat Russian/Autumn Olive?



## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

Will Goats eat Russian/Autumn Olive? What ever you call it in your neck of the woods, the several different species are (I think) very similar.

This stuff is rampant on my land, I hate it! Was just out walking the fenceline breaking it off by hand(which I know will just make it branch prolifically) and thought wouldn't it be a miracle . . . if something could eat this stuff!?!?

If they could, it's kind of thorny, it might step up my timeline of getting goats.


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## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

Mine have been very enthusiastic about killing the few that we had on the property in Wyoming.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

We have what we call Olive bushes here, not sure if it's the same variety that you have but we have them in different places in the wooded section of the goats pasture & our woods. Our goats Love them. I don't know how they eat it without getting poked but I too hate those things. Some of them they eat right down & I know eventually they will kill them but that's OK because there are more!


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## Strange Bear (May 13, 2002)

My goats will eat the leaves at certain time of the year, unfortunately they do not eat tons of it. I have Autumn olive here. The fruit is edible and taste pretty good. I have to cut the brush and paint a poison on it to get rid of it.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Mine LOVE it.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

We only have a few on our property, but one is on the way to the woods from the goat pasture. The goats run straight for it when I let them out to take them for a walk. I can only imagine what it will be like when there are yummy leaves on it.


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## trimpy (Mar 30, 2011)

Ours destroy the autumn olive growing in our field. Along with the nasty wild roses, brambles, and poison ivy.

I love goats...


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## Frosted Mini's (Nov 29, 2012)

Mine love it...that stuff grows like crazy here because it loves alkaline soils, which is what we have a lot of! It also makes pretty good winter forage, even here where everything is dead, because the seeds stick on it for a very long time thru winter. And the goats love the little seed things/"fruits". I tried one, and don't think they are edible or at least not at all tasty, for humans...


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## Copperhead (Sep 12, 2011)

Goats were born to eat autumn olive, black berry, multi-flora rose, and japanese honeysuckle! My primary reason for raising goats is to hinder brush growth to allow the grass to grow to feed the cattle!!!

Another fine side effect: if your fences contain the goats, the cows will never get out  . . . and for those who don't know me, I LOVE a really HOT electric fence


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## Frosted Mini's (Nov 29, 2012)

I just google'd autumn olive and it looks a little bit different than a Russian Olive, but maybe they are the same or similar. I see it has red berries and is more kind of shrub-like, whereas the Russian Olive that grows around here has greenish/olive color berries (same color as foliage) and is more tree-like (though it does also have a lot of low branches). I'm guessing both are annoyingly thorny.  I think they are pretty similar though, but maybe those red berries from the Autumn olive are a little more edible to people.


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback. I can't remember what color the berries are, I'm thinking red with some goldish streaks. These things have taken over, the birds spread the seed, and if you try to trim them back from the trails or fence they just branch like crazy. Their only redeeming quality is that the branches break easily by hand to clear trail while skiing and the flowers smell _wonderful_ in the spring.


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