# Dry fall leaves as winter forage??



## rkl4570 (Nov 21, 2011)

We've read somewhere that you can gather leaves in the fall as winter forage. The problem is, all we have is oaks. All of our books list oak leaves under the toxic list, but our does get tons of them every year. Our pens are right up against the tree line (the only clear area other than that space is the driveway), which is almost purely oak with a few sweet gum and poplar trees, and one we dont know what it is and wether its good or bad. So what do yall know about oak leaves... are they good, bad, or what? Our goats sure love them, and havn't had any effects from them. We just had a bunch of branches fall throughout the winter, and Id love to throw them in to the goats! :shrug:


----------



## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Oak tree leaves are safe for goats I do believe. Here's a list: http://fiascofarm.com/goats/poisonousplants.htm Oak tree leaves is on the edible list. :shrug:

When we rake our yard up every fall, we dump he leaves in the goat pen and they'll munch on them when they're bored. But these aren't oak trees. Good to spread them out...and make sure they don't get too much of them...but if they're just browsing around eating them here and there. They should be fine. You just don't want them eating them as their main diet and overdoing it.


----------



## Mandara Farm (Sep 12, 2010)

We bag up our cottonwood leaves in the fall so the girls have nice crisp "cookies" in the winter :laugh:


----------



## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

If oak leaves were bad for goats.. all of ours would have been dead by now. No red maples is what I believe is bad but we had some eat those too and live on.


----------



## LoneStarChic (Jan 19, 2012)

Oak leaves are "Goat chips" 

I saw mention of oak leaves being poisonous in a few goat books, but like a lot of info I read in goat books, it's incorrect.

My mom has 20 acres that is so heavly wooded you can't walk through most of it.... All oaks & briars. The goats love it & mom has always had goats on it. I'm further west than her, no browse here, but when I go to mom's I bring lots of empty feed sacks & cut gobs of oak limbs for my goats


----------



## use2bwilson (Aug 4, 2011)

Our girls LOVE the fall leaves ... so we raked them into a HUGE pile just outside of their pen and then covered it with a tarp. So it's super convenient to toss a pile over the fence to them most days ... or to just let them out to wander the yard and browse on the big pile. It totally sounds like they are eating potato chips with all the crunching. They seem to eat more leaves when they are out browsing in the pasture than they do weeds or grass ...


----------



## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

This is good to know! I was just thinking f things to give the goats for treats while the snow is on the ground. I have plum tress that the leaves never fell off. They are brown and have been frozen a few times...are these OK?


----------



## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

packhillboers said:


> If oak leaves were bad for goats.. all of ours would have been dead by now. No red maples is what I believe is bad but we had some eat those too and live on.


I have a huge maple tree in the goat pasture and the girls ate them like potato chips for a couple of months when they fell. Failed to kill them. I didn't think to bag any.


----------



## Willow (Jun 12, 2011)

I have heard that all stone fruits...plums , peaches, cherries etc. are toxic to goats...dont feed!

My goats love the maple leaves [not red maple] in our yard.


----------



## rkl4570 (Nov 21, 2011)

Thanks for the info! we used to have a bunch of wild cherry trees, but we cut them all down so they wouldnt kill the goats. I wish I knew what that one tree is though, but they eat leaves from it too and no harm. One tree that they LOVE is a hawthorn tree right outside the pen. During the summer it gives a ton of shade plus they eat all leaves that grow too close. :laugh:


----------



## BillyMac (Nov 3, 2011)

I have mostly oaks on my place and the goats eat the leaves like crazy when they drop in the fall. I have at least 20 different species of trees on my place so I'm not sure if there are any leaves they do not eat. I just know they eat a lot of leaves even when they have great hay and grain in the barn.


----------



## rkl4570 (Nov 21, 2011)

Thats ours. especially when we have a windy day, theyr all running around mouths pointed to the sky! :laugh:


----------



## Steve (Mar 12, 2011)

Oaks in general have a high tannin content,and are acidic, stuff goats love to eat.Mine will strip every leaf they can get from an oak.

Itchy The dead plum leaves should not hurt them because they are dead but best not give them many.My goats eat wild cherry leaves when they can find them,but i only let them eat the fresh or completely dry ones,its the wilted leaves that have arsenic in them.If a wild cherry tree limb falls out in a storm and its leaves wilt do not let anything have it.


----------



## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks Steve! Mine keep wanting to eat the Nan King cherry leaves...in fact they distroyed one before i noticed, It was just before it got berries so leaves were fresh. No one got sick. I thot all cherry trees were toxic.


----------



## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

It's my understanding that live cherry tree leaves are ok. It's not until the leaves wilt that they produce cyanide and kills the animals.


----------



## rkl4570 (Nov 21, 2011)

Yea Ive heard that. But, my mom was so worried about it that we cut down every cherry anywhere near the goats. Luckily there werent that many! :wink:


----------

