Tree Hay, An Ancient Practice To Feed Your Livestock For Free

[@twooldcrowshomestead]

This is a great idea! There are so many trees we could do this with on our property, especially the one hanging over our drive way. Thanks!

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thank you! Let us know how it goes.

[@journeyoflovelight]

What a great idea. It makes sense. Im looking forward to seeing how it goes. Very cool building. What a beautiful property you guys have. Thanks for the post.- Melanie

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thank you, Melanie. We really appreciate you. We will do an update towards the end of the year and see how it goes. It does make a lot of sense and I often wondered how ancient peoples fed their livestock in areas that do not have a lot of grass. It is really an amazing concept. -Denise

[@PermaPasturesFarm21]

Collecting the Golden rod is pure genius!

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thank you! We will see how it does. The property is loaded with it.

[@Dreamydazefarm]

Great idea 💡 definitely a good use for a normal chore of pruning trees we have a lot of black walnut trees also black walnuts are the best nutrition first year we had a heck of a time getting that hull off but we found the easiest way green or black a good power washer does the trick we fill half an old milk crate and just spray them right off definitely found this easier than dealing with the black sticky stuff that took us hours before we dry them for a couple months in burlap bag they are also delicious right away raw🤙🏻 all time favorite 🤩

[@RenewedHomestead]

That is a great idea! Thank you! We are going to try that!

[@Outtahide540]

Once I had a couple cows to die and at the same time I found a wild cherry tree had blown down in the pasture and the leaves were dying. Old timers told me the tree was to blame and to always cut those trees away and haul them out away from the cows. Hope all goes well with the tree hay.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thanks so much Mel. We have been told the same thing. Thankfully, we don't have any more wild cherry trees in the pasture. I am so sorry that happened. That had to be devastating.

[@spoolsandbobbins]

We have choke cherry growing everywhere here and we’re slowly pulling it out. The sheep love it so we’ve got to be careful.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi, is chokeberry hard to get rid of? We have that multi flora rose everywhere. It is awful, but at least the goats and sheep can eat it.

[@pennynealeigh6557]

My goats don't eat the native black walnut (California walnut),I thought tĥey might be toxic. They do eat sparingly wild plum and bay(medicinally?). They love berry vies,poison oak and willow.I feed apple and pear prunings with no ill effects. I don't feed pe ach or plum.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi Penny, thank you! Ours love black walnut and even black locust, and I know some people have said they are toxic. We haven’t had any issues. Grateful for that. 😊 They absolutely love willow as well. I love that they eat poison ivy. Win for the goats. 😂😊

[@anewlinii]

Love the t-shirt Go Broncos!

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thanks Allen!

[@wildwestunlimited]

AWE MAN!..... Is that stream on your property?..... NICE!!!.... I think I'd be making a nice bucket, sand, rocks and charcoal at the bottom and then run it all through a UV-C light and BOOM..... Virtually endless drinking water! At least have the buckets and light on hand JUST in case your well dries up for some weird reason. NICE work!!

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thank you! We have two streams and several other water sources on the property. That was a must, we had to have a property with good water. Our well water is amazing.

[@zedmeinhardt3404]

Update on palatablity? Heard you waited for the snow.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi zedmeinhardt, if they have hay they prefer to eat the hay, but otherwise they eat it. The goats really like it. Not sure what you mean we waited for the snow? Thanks for the comment.

[@zedmeinhardt3404]

@@RenewedHomestead I was looking through comments for the answer before asking. Someone else asked previously and you replied about "trying again after the snow" when the animals wouldn't have fresh grass as an alternative. Glad they ate it, planning out forage/fodder/tree hay options for my property.

[@RenewedHomestead]

@zedmeinhardt3404 got it. Once the snow had hit and they didn’t have hay they ate it. 😂

[@jenniferbunker2757]

What all life stalk is this good for ?

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi Jenniferbunker2757, it is good for all livestock that I am aware of. We feed it to our cows, goats, sheep, and some to our rabbits.

[@Phabiona]

Just out of curiosity if you have sheep and any other grazers why are you mowing? Why not let them graze and again why are you mowing? If with a mower that uses gas and oil you are contaminating their feeding areas and your soil. Just let the sheep do the mowing for you and save you some money too.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi Elizabeth, there are areas the sheep were not in at the time. Some areas they will be in and some they won’t. We don’t want them right at our back or front door. Some of these areas we had other parts of our livestock in. There is a plan in place and if you watched our current videos you would see that we had them in these areas just a couple of months ago. We only had a few sheep at the time and didn’t have enough sheep to keep the grasses down. They couldn’t even keep up in our pasture. When this happens you sometimes have to mow or brush hog as we have a heavy tick and yellow jacket populations here. When the grass is so tall the guineas can’t reach them. Gas powered vehicles don't contaminate the ground like ag chemicals do. Sometimes they are necessary. Thanks for the comment. We appreciate it!

[@debadipchanda2876]

Dear Friend... In this process can i keep tree leaves for 7 - 8 month for Goat feeding without use of any external chemicals ?

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi @debadipchanda2876, yes you can. You just have to make sure it is dry. We kept ours up to a year.

[@Phabiona]

Those maples are not too close. Nature I rented and fantastic shading you have there. Hopefully you didn’t cut them down. Just advice yet I wouldn’t recommend cutting them down.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Thanks Elizabeth, our friends said the same thing. We just want to make sure we are being good stewards. Appreciate the help. 🙏

[@stephaniewilson3955]

You call it 'tree hay' we call it 'browse'. I would not drag it along the ground which will damage it. You have a hand cart, use it!

[@RenewedHomestead]

I didn't know you called it browse, that is good to know. Thanks for the tip!

[@Phabiona]

Also can expose them to parasites that might be on the ground, especially when it’s wet out.

[@RenewedHomestead]

Great point, thanks Elizabeth!

[@wellfedfarm8122]

Were you able to feed the tree hay?

[@RenewedHomestead]

Hi Well Fed Farm, we tried last week but they didn’t eat it. They still have a lot of green grass so that could be why. We are going to try again in a couple of days when there’s a whole bunch of snow on the ground to see how they like it, we are going to do a video on it. 🙂 Thank you!