# What are your goats favorite plants?



## LizStabbert (May 6, 2013)

What is your goats favorite thing to eat in the pasture? More specifically, what plants do they love that you don't mind encouraging to grow in your pasture (blackberries don't need any help ;-) )


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

Willow. Specifically Salix exigua, also known as sandbar willow. It forms a brushy shrub, and they love eating all parts, the soft stems, bark, and leaves. I don't have the area on the property with all the willow fenced in, but I will walk them to that spot and let them eat all they want, or cut willow canes and deliver them to the goats.


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## Tayet (Feb 9, 2012)

My goats LOVE Box Elder leaves. We have lots of that kind of tree and they will go for those, before anything else. They love Raspberries, too.


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## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

Willows, aspen, wild rose, dandelions, and thistles.


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## Dani-1995 (Mar 11, 2011)

Bradford pear tree (they love the leaves, bark and sometimes eat the pears that fall) and red tip bushes are favorites. They also love the young pine trees.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Plantain grows wild, lilac (not in goat area), sumac, hazlenut trees.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Red Elderberry shrubs. My boys will bend the whole thing over and munch away til all that's left is a totally bald 3 foot stem.


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## Fairchr1 (May 25, 2013)

*plants*

Try clover I know it grows more wild then planted but it's good for your goats


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Mine love lilac and filbert (hazelnut) trees. Both grow in their pen and are generally leaf-less from 4' down. I'm also looking for things I can add to their pen to increase variety and hopefully extend their foraging season. Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes) grow quickly and my goats LOVE them. The tubers are similar to red potatoes with a richer flavor. I'm currently experimenting to see if they can keep up with the goats though... and I'm not sure the plan is succeeding. I am reluctant to plant them in the ground as they are pretty aggressive spreaders... but in the container I put them in, the goats are pulling them up by the root. :/ I just planted some carrots, beets and parsley in their pen too (in a section currently fenced off from the goats, till it grows). With only 3 goats out there, I'm hoping if I plant enough different stuff... it'll be able to keep up with their browsing. Though I very well may be dreaming. LOL

I've also been thinking about putting some grapevines along the fence. THEY LOVE grapevine, but dont have access to it currently. I cut an armful daily during the summer/fall months and throw it in their pen. They love it as much or more than blackberry!


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## GTAllen (Jul 22, 2012)

Sour dock, curly dock, willow, hackberry, johnson grass, plantain, prickly lettuce, and dallis grass, and sow thistle right now. I don't try to encourage any of the weeds. I do like the hackberry trees, willow trees, and paradise trees.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Clover, camomile, plantain leaves, dandelions , any and all fruit trees much to my dismay, all kinds of grasses. Anything you plant in a garden they will eat.

My goats love people food though. They will flat out mow you down for a burrito. They eat any type of food I eat if they can, and they will eat it so fast you won't have time to blink!
They also love sandwiches , chips, tacos, fruit, vegetables, just everything. One of my does actually likes the Listerine breathe strips and mints! Haha.


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## HarleyBear (Aug 31, 2012)

Blackberry!


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## WillowGem (Aug 3, 2011)

Willow, pine and blackberry bushes....YUMMY!! 
Lately they've been loving just munching on tall grass.


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## olfart (Mar 7, 2013)

Ours love whatever we're trying to keep them out of... rose bushes, cannas, irises, you name it. In the wild, they love sweetgum leaves, oak, maple, sumac, poison ivy, briars and occasionally the grass I'm trying to get them to eat in the back yard.


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## teejae (Jan 21, 2013)

ours love Wattle and Casirina trees and various other Aus. native species.I have a pole pruner I carry around in the paddock to get those up high tasty Wattle branches.During the drought 3 years ago my husband would use the chain saw to cut down the Wattle trees,the goats learnt the noisey scary thing ment branches/food...lol it was quite funny seeing husband being followed by 20 goats like the pied piper  We also have a huge stand of Bananas(never buy them )and they love the leaves and stems.They also love oranges!,teejae


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## katie (Dec 3, 2012)

thorns and brambles.


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## russellp (Apr 10, 2013)

Mine love mamossa and sweet gum tree leaves


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## HappyHarrisFarm97 (Apr 13, 2013)

My sweet babies like just about anything, but especially mulberry trees. We have more than 50 on our property so they get all they want. I planted carrots in the garden just for them. And they will tackle you to the ground for kamquarts! Not too crazy about cabbage. But any veggie or fruit scraps I have, they take care of in no time!


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

I'm impressed with the botanical knowledge on The Goat Spot.
I'm outgunned. 
My goats have totally ruined their blackberry crop. Only took two years. Last year I was turning a pasture that horses had ruined into a decent pasture and one of the things I drug into the soil was "hairy vetch". I got the idea from Jack Mauldin's website. I planted it in the fall and it came up very well. I then read some things saying it can be poisonous. I was a little nervous, but the goats ate the heck out of it and it never hurt them. It didn't come back on it's own this year. I might try just brodcasting some this fall and see if it will come up without much help.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Their all time fav. is buck brush. Its a horable bush that has thorns on it and when you cut it down it takes about a year for it to dry it out to burn. My girls have have mauled it so bad they kill it but is still standing so not blocking any grass for the cows and we simply knock it down durning the winter and its already dry and we burn it. Right now they are crazy over tar weed. I have heard its not good for horses, so not overly happy about it but sure nice not to have it around. I have heard they love a weed that is called white top, my parents farm place has it so they are going to get a trailer load of my goats and try it out. But good to know about the willows, since they also have a ton of that as well.


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## katie (Dec 3, 2012)

they also like burrdock I don't know if I spelled that right. Some people call them Elephant Ears.


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## RichV (Jun 2, 2013)

Hostas and blueberries apparently are their favorites. Wild roses, blackberries and red oak trees are the wild things they go for first.


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## Sylvie (Feb 18, 2013)

Live Oak, Olive, and wild Willow trees. Wild Grape vines, and iceplant.


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## Jodi_berg (Oct 29, 2012)

Cedar,pigweed,raspberry leaves,rose bushes,they like short green moss and even a lot of different tree barks. My mulberry tree leaves,grape leaves are a super fav!


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

Anything that I have growing that I do not want them to eat is their favorite plant.


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## OutdoorDreamer (Mar 29, 2012)

Maple leaves and blackberry bush is a favorite in the woods for my goats.


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## PiccoloGoat (Sep 10, 2008)

Mine are loving the wild grape vine leaves that are dried up (it's autumn) and they also just attack the plumbago. 
They like the white cedar too but not to the point of stripping the stems of all their leaves. :3

But the dried grape leaves are like candy to them!!


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