ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS > FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE

Tree Hay

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The15thMember:
My sister has been doing research on tree hay lately for our goats, since we've got a lot of forested land, but very little cleared land, and the goats prefer leaves to grass anyway.  I was curious if anyone here has any experience with managing trees for hay or pasture?   

BeeMaster2:
What type of trees are you referring to? Around here they are mostly pine, definitely not browse food.
The brush is mostly Gallberry which is not very good at all, if my cows start eating Gallberry I know they are starving. We also have a lot of palmetto which the cows like hence there is almost none on my original acreage. I have seen a horse rip the entire frond from the stem and eat the entire thing.
Jim Altmiller

The15thMember:

--- Quote from: BeeMaster2 on August 28, 2022, 08:29:00 pm ---What type of trees are you referring to? Around here they are mostly pine, definitely not browse food.
The brush is mostly Gallberry which is not very good at all, if my cows start eating Gallberry I know they are starving. We also have a lot of palmetto which the cows like hence there is almost none on my original acreage. I have seen a horse rip the entire frond from the stem and eat the entire thing.
Jim Altmiller


--- End quote ---
No, I'm referring to broadleaf trees: poplar, locust, ash, willow, etc.  We have plenty of shrub undergrowth that the goats eat live in their pastures (our goats are short, so they can't reach even low tree limbs usually).  Apparently many trees can be pollarded (pruned to encourage growth) and the limbs or leaves dried like grass hay to be fed in the winter.  It's something that was and is more common in Europe than in America, I believe.  I'd never heard of it before, so I was just wondering if anyone happened to have any experience with it.   

BeeMaster2:
Trees like Maple can bee cut and bent over. The goats will eat the leaves and the tree continues to produce leaves for the goats to eat. This is done down here for helping to provide food for deer populations on managed lands. A friend of mine does this. For more information talk to your Ag agent. They did it on his property as part of training.
Jim Altmiller

Michael Bush:
Lakota would feed young cottonwood branches to their horses to get the through the winter.  The Europeans used to do "Pollarding" where they cut the tops off of a lot of trees and fed those, then next year they cut them again.  They cut them about four feet high or so.  There is the issue of whether or not things are poisonous.  I know maple leaves are poisonous to horses.

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