# Chive like onion grass and goat poo and milk?



## LegendsCreekFarm (Dec 27, 2011)

You all told me not to bother tilling the soil and planting expensive seeds of clover because the goats will prefer browsing weeds. Anyway, last week we had some amazing weather and now all the grass is growing.

I was in the stall today and I kept smelling an onion chive smell, and realized it was coming from the goat poo. I went out into the pasture and realized that the WHOLE files is growing is chive like grass. I picked it and tasted it and it tastes like chives. What is this? Is it chives, or something else? 

The lady who owned the place before me had horses here and I'm wondering if this is something she grew that was good for them, or is this some let of plant that is not chive but smells like it and is good for the goats?

I'm also wondering if the smell will pass into the milk... I'm about to make a cheddar with 6 gallons and I guess a natural chive taste might be kind of cool after aging it for a year, lol.


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

Probably just wild onion... they are prevalent this time of year they seem to beat the grass up in the spring. My cows and goats eat the too.


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## LegendsCreekFarm (Dec 27, 2011)

If its wild onion, will there be bulbs under the ground if I dig it up?


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

I think later in the summer there would be a more bulbous root... nothing like an onion you would plant in your garden. But at this point in the spring the roots are probably very small just like a grass.


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## LegendsCreekFarm (Dec 27, 2011)

Wow.nthere is so much of it, even growing in the area where I'm planting my crops. I hope it doesn't overtake things


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

I think if you mow em down they will pretty much go away they are a spring thing.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I love wild onions. when I was a kid I would dig them up and eat them, to me they tast more like water chesnuts. I would think that wild onions would be good to have around, onions are like a 'gas X' so I would think they would help the goats not bloat. Im not sure the wild ones would do the same thing, but if they did I would be happy to have some around.


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## LegendsCreekFarm (Dec 27, 2011)

I'll try and dig some up to see if I can find bulbs... The girls are loving them but the smell from the poo is so nasty!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

^^^lol, ok I can see why you dont like them, lol.


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## dobe627 (Oct 16, 2007)

Are you sure its their poo and not their breath? When mine eat the wild chives( or whatever they are) they do belch and you can really smell it. FYI I always dry a bunch so I can use it, hasn't hurt me. But the one year I learned to get it while I could. One day I went to get some for roasted potatoes and there was none.


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## naturalgoats (Jan 3, 2011)

They don't have a bulb but I know we have used them as a chive substitue in the past... and I think I and my firend made a decent broth out of them as well... they are very chewy though.. lol 
M.


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## LegendsCreekFarm (Dec 27, 2011)

It could be their breath, it's nauseating, lol. I just went out and dotty ( the one who's the biggest pain in the ass but hysterical) heard me and she jumped up on the side of the stall to see what I was doing, I went to give her a kiss and she went MEHHHHH right in my face and it was all onion. Lol


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

When I lived in Mississippi there was a ton of wild onion in my pasture. The goats alway ate allot of it when it grew in. Goodness I could smell their breath from ten feet away. I don't know if it afects the milk because I wasn't milking goats at the time but the way it smells I'm sure it does.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Oh milk, duhh didnt even think of that
naturalgoat- the wild one we had in our place in Or. had bulbs. The green top smelled like onions then when you dig down would find a small bulb, it also had a mild smell of onion, but didnt tast like it. I wonder if there are diff. types of wild ones.


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## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

We had that at our other place (not far from where we are now).
I didn't have goats at that time, but I did had my siblings.
sometimes I think they qualify for goats, lol.
They would pick it and chew it for a while and then spit it out and then do it again.
Some would actually eat it. My brother used to be a garlic and onion guru so his breath smelled just as bad as what you describe, total yuck. 

My guess is it could affect the milk if they have eaten a lot of it.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Anything a doe ingests can transfer to her milk...I'd suggest drinking some before you make cheese and if you taste the wild onion or even belch later and taste the onion then you'll know wether or not to use the milk for cheddar..... would make great chevre however with the oniony flavor.


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## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

Years ago, I had a neighbor who ran a dairy farm (cows). He waged constant war on wild onions as the cows would eat them in the spring and ruin the milk. No one would buy it due to the strong onion flavor. 

There is one section of my yard where I mow grass that wild onions are so thick I get heartburn from just breathing in that area after mowing. I honestly don't know how to get rid of them either. 

When we were growing tobacco, they would get plowed up every year and then grow back the next. I don't know how organic you are trying to be, but I would think weed killer like Roundup would eliminate them.


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