# Bamboo for livestock?



## GoinHome (Sep 22, 2011)

Anybody here growing bamboo for winter livestock fodder? 

I recently read about doing this and would like to get firsthand info from someone who has experience with it. 

Thanks!


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## rockhound (Sep 25, 2009)

You don't say what zone or what kind of bamboo. How about a little more info?


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

it is a good idea, but i thought bamboo was too hard for most animals to chew.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Back when I was young we used to put cattle in the cane brakes.
It grew all along the banks of creeks and rivers. Some were so thick you could hardly get through them.
Cattle would eat it but grass grown on the same ground was much better feed.


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## da_wanderer (Dec 28, 2009)

I trim branches off ours and throw it in with the chickens. They love the leaves.


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## GoinHome (Sep 22, 2011)

I have not grown bamboo, just started learning about it. I was hoping someone here might be using it so I could learn more about actual experiences use it for winter livestock fodder. 

I am in zone 7

I read that bamboo is evergreen, the leaves make very good animal fodder, depending on the variety of bamboo, some are more palatable than others. 

Some tolerate cold better so they can keep their leaves on and stay green better in winter. 

Some tolerate heat and direct sunlight better. Some like more shade.

Running versus clumping seems like a no-brainer in terms of control issues, but I read that running varieties may stay greener in winter. 

I am thinking of developing some very large areas of bamboo for winter forarge for livestock, so it would be important to have a variety that is palatable, will winter well, and is very palatable. 

Thanks for any feedback.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

We have some bamboo planted for our goats. Right now the plants are still small, but we strip off some leaves for them and they love them.


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## OldNight (Jul 10, 2011)

Cane (Arundinaria gigantea) is apparently excellent forage for livestock although difficult to establish. If it were me though, I would much rather try and establish river cane then get rid of bamboo.


"Cane provides high quality forage for cattle, horses, swine, and domestic sheep [62]. Because it is evergreen, cane is good for grazing year-round [4]. Cane was once widely utilized as a forage plant for cattle and domestic sheep across much of the southeastern U.S. In Mississippi cane was once commonly called "mutton grass" because of its value as domestic sheep forage [62]."
Text from here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/...all.html#IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I had a Blue Fountain Bamboo, and every time I let my horse's any where near it, they ate all the leaves. Wasn't what I had planned but it didn't seem to hurt them.

Problem with the clumping bamboo I have had, is they are pretty fragile and do not seem to grow very fast. They are spendy and if the livestock kept stripping the leaves off, pretty sure they would kill the Bamboo pretty fast.

People usually run their cattle in their corn fields after the corn had been harvested. Also seen them fed sugar beet tops.


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## da_wanderer (Dec 28, 2009)

I am in what used to be zone 7b according to the hardiness maps. I have 8 species of running bamboo planted around the property for shoots and poles. With the exception of the Golden Bamboo (Phylostachyss aureus) all my plantings are still small. I used dead canes out of the 1200 square feet of golden bamboo to build a small fence last year and we've been throwing branches to the chickens since summer. 

If you want to grow a large area you might want to check out the book, "Farming Bamboo", by Daphne Lewis. She describes how to plant a large area for a good stand of bamboo in about 10 years or less.

The species I have planted are P. edulis (Moso), P. bambusoides (Japanese Timber), P. makinoi (large timber), P. rubromarginata (fast growing-shoots and poles), P. vivax (large and fast growing-shoots), P. viridis (Pigskin bamboo - shoots), P. ***** var. Henon (poles), and the Golden bamboo which has been here for 30 years. I've got 5 to 10 years to wait for my bamboo to grow to full size. I will need to fight off the local squirrel population that has learned that the Golden Bamboo shoots are good to eat.


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