Food Forest Goat Fodder

Join Geoff and his grandson, Blair, as they collect forage for the goats while maintaining the food forest. In this video, they chopped and dropped the big legume trees shading out the food forest and collected herbaceous and medicinal material to feed the goats.
A useful multifunctional element in the process involves the leftover sticks from pruning after the goats consume the leaves. The sticks are set aside to dry and used as kindling during winter. Additionally, Geoff places the chickens' grain in piles of sticks to protect it from the goats. The chickens can access some of the grain, but the goats cannot. Any missed bits of grain often sprout, providing an extra layer of fodder for the pen.
Key Takeaways
- Using some of the forest's chop-and-drop and foraged herbs to feed goats is a great way to accomplish multiple tasks.
- Mugwort is good to include in animal forage because it helps to worm the animals.
- When multiple functions play a role in what we do, finding curious solutions seems to come naturally.
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About Geoff:
Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other and to return the surplus.
About Permaculture:
Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies - imitating the no-waste, closed-loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.
#permaculture #foodforest #goat

[@susanaquezada7671]

That boy is lucky to have you as grandad😊

[@yLeprechaun]

Wow! Can you imagine having Geoff as your G'pa? Life is just better for some folks than it is for others. ;)

[@cesarmagdaleno6009]

I hope your grandson continues your legacy.

[@deanthornby2026]

He ain't dead yet 😂

[@honey-bee-farmstead]

I LOVE that you're making videos again, I've so missed your amazing information

[@danielnaberhaus5337]

Your videos have had a huge impact on me, now I'm doing permaculture design! Please keep em coming!!!

[@jameskniskern2261]

Sometimes the chop is a ways away from the drop! Love this!

[@PsychicIsaacs]

I pull weeds from my food forest to feed to my horse. It’s a good plan. It clears some of the clutter from the understorey, and feeds my big baby/farm helper/manure factory, all at the same time!

[@jordycorvers7465]

great video. your grandson seems like a really good worker and is driving that thing like a badass;)

[@JasonLockwood87]

Geoff, Thanks for all the work you do by the way. Truly inspiring. I live in the UK and have just bought a 10.5 acre homestead. It's west facing agricultural land on the side of a hill that has been grazed by sheep for hundreds of years. I see alot about food forests in countries like Australia, USA and Southern Europe but there doesnt seem to be alot in the UK. Do we have the climate for a productive food forest here? I'm not sure we do. As you're a brit, maybe you can share some examples of what to grow and point me in the right direction?

[@thisearththeonlyheaven]

Robert Hart (first food forest in UK?) and Martin Crawford (has written books on topic, and has demo property) could be worth looking into, two names associated with forest gardens that I have heard about here in the Antipodes. Agroforestry seems to be a thing too.

[@kerim.peardon5551]

Look at an old hedgerow. I'm amazed watching British foragers just walking around and picking up apples and berries and rosehips and all sorts of things out of the hedgerows where hundreds of years ago, someone planted some stuff (or it just got carried there by birds or someone threw out some food scraps) in a small strip of otherwise unusable land, and now there's so much bounty in it. Also, check out Beltaine Cottage here on KZbin. That lady has built an amazing permaculture forest on 3 acres of formerly boggy pastureland in the west of Ireland. She has some videos where she shows the before pictures and also where she walks down to the road and shows the neighbor's plain pastureland next to her land, which looks and sounds like some sort of near-tropical paradise. And she's very proud to say she did everything by herself as a middle-aged woman with almost no money.

[@ninemoonplanet]

Byther Farm is a KZbin channel that's just begun a food forest in Wales on a slope. I don't see any reason why you can't practice permaculture in England. Pay attention to the native plants, look at the path of the sun (there's an app) to see where it's strongest in each month. Geoff started with just a few trees.

[@Yomanchamcru]

As someone else has mentioned here, Martin Crawford would be the shining example of walking the forest gardening walk in a cool temperate climate. See also Graham Bell, and here on KZbin, check out the Cairn of Duncroft channel for really clever food forest stuff and indeed all things permaculture in the north of Scotland. Point is, it's all incredibly doable.

[@bunyiphoopsnake5870]

Thanks Geoff! Good to see the chicks in with the adult chooks. I was wondering if it was possible

[@nessav7258]

I have chicks in with the adult chooks including roosters. They follow the pecking order (usually last) unless still with their mum and she feeds them.

[@ahmadhasif979]

“The problem is the solution “

[@mojavebohemian814]

Thankyou for the ride-along!

[@Olatunji_homesteady]

Thanks for the great work,how I wished to have you as a father or grandfather.

[@pinkelephants1421]

Blimey Geoff! You REALLY could do with an electric version of that buggy. That old thing is incredibly noisy and I'd bet, equally smelly from the petrol fumes. Plenty of choice available online to suit a wide range of budgets and use cases.

[@estebancorral5151]

No, he should keep what he has to maintain a low carbon footprint. Instead he should produce ethanol to run the car, and the spent mash is a probiotic animal feed. The water should be recovered to grow more plants.

[@Awellsfarm]

I think forage-ology is good word ! As well as compost-ology !

[@backtonature433]

That's a nice ride sir Geoff 😃👌👌👌 🤗🤗🤗

[@deanpd3402]

That's a beast of a machine.

[@EricSeider]

Love the chicken feed in the sticks solution.

[@rodrigo13121962]

Amazing work and pleasure too!!!

[@jbiliHacker]

great job !

[@muhajirpemulung1953]

I like the bamboo.. :)

[@Ruby-K]

Dear Geoff, just wondering what your thoughts are on how some parts of Arabia have turned 'green' after the recent heavy rains and floods, e.g. around Makkah and Jeddah? Do you think this greenery can be sustained without any further human intervention? Ma'shaallah.

[@TSis76]

Love it!!

[@SuerteDelMolinoFarm]

Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain where we currently look into having animals

[@KeystoneJul]

Hehe he, I was just looking for that on the online PDC site

[@HeatherNaturaly]

I'm sure you already know this, but banana stalks are wonderful animal feed for anything from ducks and chickens to pigs and cows, and the central core is human food, just like palm hearts.

[@estebancorral5151]

You left out mushrooms.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

I wonder how well you'd do with a cycle rickshaw there. Those motor rickshaws are noisy as hell

[@emilmoldovan1789]

Beautiful 😍

[@peternaksukses143]

So Natural 👍

[@ramthian]

❤

[@DrShoesMcGee]

RIP headphones users 🙏

[@oniempire5849]

Chris here I have a question have you ever used electro culture if so why don't you use it now. Its seems very simple an antenna collecting atmospheric energy that is grounded to re-magnetize the soil. You never speak of soil magnetism even with basalt do you just not bother or is this all pseudo or is it because your main goal is permanence and not size and quantity of produce.

[@ilcanaledellanatura]

Nice!!

[@stecder2470]

in a video geoff lewton said someone in california was producing with permaculture 10times more in one acre than industrial. can t find that video or who was he talking about.

[@karenscott8884]

Hi Geoff, Just wanting to know, how Many trees are too many? On 726 sq m I’m working it deciduous etc for winter and summer, mid wheat belt wa so Mediterranean climate.. only been at it here for 12 months so working on knowing the site.’

[@turtle2212]

Hi Geoff, thanks so much. Can I also feed my chickens with mugweed against worms?

[@gup8175]

Thanks!

[@ladyryan902]

Nice

[@Armenhanmer]

what are your thoughts about the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami in Pakistan?

[@nessav7258]

Hello Geoff. Do you ever use acacia as a food for animals or for a chop and drop? Can there be any issues with goats eating chicken manure? I've read about liver fluke from chicken manure.

[@allenchase3987]

Geoff is mugwort toxic to people or other animals? I heard you lost it for goats as a dewormer. We do not have goats or sheep on our farm yet but I have ordered seed for mugwort.

[@deancarlyle7431]

👍

[@elenagarcia731]

🙏❤️

[@pratikmandle8668]

1:40.. which feed that was?

[@tobiasessiger615]

You must be proud

[@estebancorral5151]

The word is silvology not forrestology.

[@younggary7849]

we n food forests n guns

[@jasonkennedy1670]

Blair can steer 👍

[@chiaridude9098]

✌️😁✌️

[@TOMMYSURIA]

👂👂👂👂👂???

[@scotthuey1981]

Geoff! You are badly needed in Jordan Peterson’s new project and vision for the future. Please check out Joe Rogans latest talk with Jordan Peterson and sign up. This is not a drill mate. Thank you 🌱💚✨

[@johnowens5342]

I agree.

[@RyanCoomer]

Playing paddy cake bakers aids

[@lesliegrayson1722]

Please be aware that permaculture's origins are set in Leftard political people who were set against men of power made from huge farming. Diego Footer explains in his you tube vids how to make US$350K a year from 1.5 acres a Modern day success story. I have heard from permaculture people that on an average of 5acres people using permaculture are getting an maximum of 60% of their yearly provisions for the year... and they thought that was a lot of food. So I'm not a fan, though some ideas are already used by farmers.. ideas and real life use .. so different.

[@johnowens5342]

I remember reading about it in the Bible. If you read the first few chapters you will notice a food Forest is the ideal ecology God made for man. I never really thought of Adam and Eve as leftard political people 😂 thanks for being me someone to laugh at.

[@TSis76]

Take the baby, leave the bathwater.