# Has anyone planted wildflowers or other herbaceous plants for foraging?



## ltehs63 (Nov 23, 2015)

Since goats are primarily forgers and do not do much grazing, has anyone ever considered planting wildflower or other herbaceous plants for their goats? Have you tried anything else? I want to make sure pastured goats get a proper diet.

L.T.


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

We have thought about just throwing a bunch of wildflower and herb seed in the pasture but just haven't done it yet and that would be a lot of seed lol....we have neighbors though that have a huge forest of fir and they will pretty regularly throw over a lot of big branches for our goats. Also any time we see fallen branches along side the road we will often stop and grab them. Lol Also I give them flower cuttings from our flower beds and garden stuff that I know they can have during the summer. During the winter though their diet basically consists of grass and fir and the occasional vegetable scraps from our kitchen. We have also planted herbs in our flowerbeds just for the goats. Things like comfrey, bee balm, borage, hyssop, and fennel. They love it when I throw over some of that stuff and a lot of those things will last over the winter here so they get some fresh herbs during winter as well. So anyways that's kinda what we do.


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## ltehs63 (Nov 23, 2015)

TheGoatWhisperer said:


> We have thought about just throwing a bunch of wildflower and herb seed in the pasture but just haven't done it yet and that would be a lot of seed lol....we have neighbors though that have a huge forest of fir and they will pretty regularly throw over a lot of big branches for our goats. Also any time we see fallen branches along side the road we will often stop and grab them. Lol Also I give them flower cuttings from our flower beds and garden stuff that I know they can have during the summer. During the winter though their diet basically consists of grass and fir and the occasional vegetable scraps from our kitchen. We have also planted herbs in our flowerbeds just for the goats. Things like comfrey, bee balm, borage, hyssop, and fennel. They love it when I throw over some of that stuff and a lot of those things will last over the winter here so they get some fresh herbs during winter as well. So anyways that's kinda what we do.


Thanks. I wounder if wildflower would grow back every year or would the goats eat them up before they get a chance to populate?


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## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

Wild sunflowers grow all over my land. They come back every year. My goats loves them. Leaves and flowers. I don't know what species they are but here's a picture of them.


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

I would think It depends how many goats you have and the ratio of goats to land if you know what I mean...for example we have 7 goats and 5 acres. They would never be able to eat all of the stuff in our pasture. lol


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

I'm working on something like this. I think to really do it well, you need multiple paddocks that you can rotate (or tons of land, compared to your number of goats). Most things need time to get established, and also if it's something the goats really love, they can eat them into oblivion if they have free access all the time. 

I'm in the tropics, so I am planting things like pigeon pea, monkey pod, albizia, and other leguminous trees and shrubs, plus others that the goats love and help with deworming, like ti leaves, hibiscus, and mulberry. Since I don't have multiple paddocks yet, I am currently planting them outside the goat pen, to cut and carry for the goats and toss into their home-made "branch-feeder". Shrubs and trees can be cut back over and over again (or grazed), and re-grow, given time. I like that they don't have to be constantly replanted, like annuals. 


I am also planting a 20' x 75' goat garden with those same plants and others, that I will fence in, and I can put them in for a week or two every 6 weeks and just let them eat freely without me having to cut and carry. Eventually I'd love to have 6 or so of these goat gardens, and just rotate through them and not have to cut and carry at all anymore. 


Their main pen right now is about an acre (for 4 goats), but the vegetation is so dense that a lot of it is not yet accessible, even to a goat. It is also not their very favorite or most nutritious food, so they still need plenty of supplementation from me. I'm working on clearing pathways through it, and once it's cleared out enough, I will cross-fence and plant better things in there.


I don't know much about plants in temperate climates, but if I lived in one of those places I would find out what plants there are most nutritious, medicinal, and also that the goats like, and plant those. For me, the most important thing was finding high protein plants so I could minimize my dependence on imported alfalfa pellets. I'm also planting a variety of different things, because I think a varied diet is important for animals, just like for humans.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

The bad thing about commercial wild flower seed mixes is that they all have a large percent of Fox Glove included in them. Fox Glove contains digitalis, not the best thing to be eating. 

The main thing with nice shrubby plants is to keep the goats from killing the main plant. Running a fence to make a long rectangle or a small circle around the main parent plant will allow the goats to eat everything that grows outside of the fenced area but, always leave enough to keep the plant alive. This is a good way to provide blackberries, raspberries, serviceberries, elderberries, wild roses, etc. 

When finished, one of my small pasture areas will have several 6 by 20 foot fenced areas that contain these type of things along with drip watering system to keep them growing well all summer long. The other area will have River Birch, dwarf cat tails, mints, and other swamp plants that like being flooded in the winter and don't mind being cut back. The River Birch is a bark shedding tree which will raise and firm the ground in that area allowing for more improvement later. 

The Sunflower specie above looks like Jerusalem Artichokes, which are a bulb. They are hardy spreading plants that are a good pasture choice.


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