You bet they do and with real enthusiasm! Even tiny kids will tackle the ends of branches – watching their mother’s technique and then copying carefully.
We were infested with gorse here and the goats have gradually stripped out the lot in a totally environmentally friendly way and at no cost to us. We are left with piles of sticks to pick up and burn – that’s all.
Here are two photos to show you. One year apart.
Working carefully and sensibly you can manage or eliminate gorse entirely with goats. They thrive on it. Their technique os to eat enough off the lower branches to be able to crawl underneath and get to the trunk. There they strip off the bark and kill the bush. Deadly! It takes probably two years for a complete kill. When you look at and touch little soft goatie mouths it’s almost incomprehensible that that they can tackle the stuff – its so full of thorns. But they are masters of technique and are very careful to eat in a particular way.
I was interested to learn on a visit last week to the Welsh life museum (St Fagan’s) that horses used to be fed on gorse, and there were special gorse mills which crushed it to make it edible for them. I feel a bit sorry for the horses!
By: Brigid on August 1, 2011
at 9:05 am