# Trees to feed goats



## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

What are the trees in northwest that can be feed to goats? I would like to plant few trees that grow big with lots of leaf. I would like to harvest the leaves for my goats.

I already feed pine, especially the spring fresh growth. 
I am thinking mulberry.
I can't do that to my fruit trees for obvious reasons.
I also feed the rose brushes after the flowering is done.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Almost any willow is goat snack. Doug fir, which is really a pine. They eat redwood branches. They love huckleberry, salal, brambles, some fern, reeds, etc. It's much easier to say what they won't at least eat some. 
BTW I prune in summer or early fall just so the goaties can eat up the fruit tree trimmings. They will ever munch on the more tender branch wood.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Willows grow fast.  

I'd look into shrubbery or perhaps think of seeding your pasture with legumes or other leafy stuff to make more of an impact on their diet, though


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

We have an horrific amount of invasive acacia here in nw coastal california. It is highly nutritive and the goats loooove it


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## JoannaCW (Nov 29, 2008)

We also feed a lot of willow (fast growing, high in protein and also somewhat anti-inflammatory), and birch (supposed to help reduce worm load), as well as cottonwood, staghorn sumac, and lots of multiflora rose (our toughest invasive plant)...but we're NE not NW so I'm not sure which of these things would grow there...We're planning to plant mulberries.


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## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

I'd be extremely careful feeding ferns like someone mentioned. I personally know several people who lost goats after they escaped into a fern patch, or escaped and decided to sample the neighbor's ferns.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

SouthGAMan said:


> I'd be extremely careful feeding ferns like someone mentioned. I personally know several people who lost goats after they escaped into a fern patch, or escaped and decided to sample the neighbor's ferns.


Maybe you're thinking bracken rather than ferns? Too much bracken ties up vitamin b in the gut and will be bad for them.
Around here the goats nibble on some ferns but leave others alone. They do like the taste of bracken universally, unlike ferns. I keep bracken out of places they go.


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## Muskrat (Sep 4, 2005)

Apple trees, plum trees--oh, you meant things you WANT the goats to eat.


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## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

where I want to said:


> Maybe you're thinking bracken rather than ferns? Too much bracken ties up vitamin b in the gut and will be bad for them.
> Around here the goats nibble on some ferns but leave others alone. They do like the taste of bracken universally, unlike ferns. I keep bracken out of places they go.


I guess they could be bracken ferns but around here everyone just calls them ferns. I've seen them grow on hillsides alot around here. I know that some of the stories related to me included goats dying from eating fern plants out of flowerpots at houses too. 

In all honesty there may be types of ferns that are edible to goats, but i certainly wouldn't want to risk their lives on giving it to them on purpose.


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## Lady89 (Feb 22, 2014)

JoannaCW said:


> We also feed a lot of willow (fast growing, high in protein and also somewhat anti-inflammatory), and birch (supposed to help reduce worm load), as well as cottonwood, staghorn sumac, and lots of multiflora rose (our toughest invasive plant)...but we're NE not NW so I'm not sure which of these things would grow there...We're planning to plant mulberries.


as soon as i told the hubby they eat multiflora roses he answered ok we need goats. Lol


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

mygoat said:


> Willows grow fast.
> 
> I'd look into shrubbery or perhaps think of seeding your pasture with legumes or other leafy stuff to make more of an impact on their diet, though


Yes I am overseeding the pasture and sowing clover
I am also planning to grow mint and harvest, share with goats


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

where I want to said:


> Almost any willow is goat snack. Doug fir, which is really a pine. They eat redwood branches. They love huckleberry, salal, brambles, some fern, reeds, etc. It's much easier to say what they won't at least eat some.
> BTW I prune in summer or early fall just so the goaties can eat up the fruit tree trimmings. They will ever munch on the more tender branch wood.


When we moved in 1 out of 4 acres was BlackBerry patches. I brush hogged once. After that the patches were never able to come back. The roots are there. But the goats eat all the shoots that come out.

Looks like I just need a mixed fruit orchard and few willow trees...

I have around 20 Doug.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Jcran said:


> We have an horrific amount of invasive acacia here in nw coastal california. It is highly nutritive and the goats loooove it


I googled it, I love green trees with yellow flowers. I am considering it, if it grows in Oregon


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Muskrat said:


> Apple trees, plum trees--oh, you meant things you WANT the goats to eat.


Yes
I want trees that add to landscape, grows fast, nutritious to goats. I want to harvest and feed them. Leaves are their real diet than grass.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

I am also looking at wine maple, western redcedar, and red adler


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## Mike CHS (Apr 3, 2011)

It' not a tree but we are planting giant bamboo to use for food and shade. It's fast growing and if you want to keep it contained, the critters eat the new growth as fast as it comes up.


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