# Sumac and Golden Rod



## Simpler1773 (Aug 9, 2005)

I read on Fiasco Farms website that Sumac is edible by goats, but I thought I read somewhere else that it was bad for them, any experience?

Also I can't find any info on Golden Rod, any experience there? 

Edited to add fern ~ it also says that is edible, yet I read somewhere else that it wasn't :shrug: 

I'm trying to figure out what not to cut for browse materials 

Ricki


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

sumack is fine, i dont see a problem with golden rod, and ferns are fair game, 

are your goats dry lotted? 
if they have access to plenty of good brows they will naturally avoid the bad stuff, but if they are starved for fresh greens then they will eat the bad stuff along with the good and your in truble,


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## Simpler1773 (Aug 9, 2005)

For right now, yes they are dry lotted (as I am guessing that means they don't have free access to browse). I'm just loading them up with a wide assortment that I cut each day for now. Best I can do :shrug: 

Thanks!
Ricki


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

My goats started the season by clipping the tops off golden rod (a main reason for getting goats in the first place). Then they stopped eating them and moved to other weeds. Now they are nipping the golden rod leaves off one at a time. They also eat the bushy top (non flowering) from those stalks previously clipped. Last years seedheads were treated like a delicacy. So the short story is no problem but they may not want to eat the yellow flowers. I'm curious to see what they do after the goldenrod finishes blooming and goes to seed.

My list of poisonous plants has brakken fern as poisonous.

http://wric.ucdavis.edu/information/poisonous.pdf


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Smooth sumac is the only sumac my girls eat. They pass on Chinese sumac, it stinks, and Staghorn sumac is usually to tall to reach. I seem to have two different types of fern a dark and a light color, have seen them only eat the light green version. I do not intentually feed/cut and serve either of these to my goats they strickly browse. My two penned up herd bucks are given poplar, pine, maple, sassafrass, and sourwood branches daily. Poplar is by far their favorite. Keep in mind that I'm in Tenn...John


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## Jillis (Sep 11, 2005)

I've been told that goldenrod makes cows' milk bitter. If these are dairy goats you might want to give a pass on the goldenrod if your does are being milked.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

if you have Elm or Mulberry i would load them up with these, also walnut, ceder(especially in the winter) Maple, Cottonwood (if you have it), Willow, 


actually what you CAN do is put them out on stakes and tethers so they can brows and eat what they want out of the area you have available to cut from, if they are tame and will follow you you can even take them out for a walk to that area with a feed can and then bring them back to the pen with a feed can, i used to take my whole herd (35-50 animals) on walks in the neahboring cow pastures and they would eat all the weeds and young trees and such along the way. then when we were done they would follow me home.


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## Tabitha (Apr 10, 2006)

mine are picky eaters. I was hoping they would have a go at the sumac shoots and poison ivy, huh, they turn up their noses and only eat what they like, which is japanese honeysuckle, sassafrass sprouts, sawbriar, poke, young poplars and a couple of things I do not recognize. they do not care for brambles, have sniffed at blackberry and turned it down.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

give them time they will clean all that up when they feel like it, human children are the same way, why would they eat their vegetables when there is a plate full of candy right in front of them? 

its funny sometimes how differint herds have differint tastes


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I take my 13 goats out for an evening browse on my pond dikes each evening. It's a good opportunity to see what they prefer. Since most were bottle raised all I have to do is holler Come'on Boys! and bawl a couple of times to make them come a running. In fact they won't usually let me walk away to feed the fish without chasing after me.


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