The way I looked at the world changed when I got my first goat. Everything looked like goat food. I hauled home tree limbs, bags of ornamental pears and crab apples that had fallen on the ground, and after Christmas, some of those trees headed to the dump ended up stockpiled in my backyard.
But that was just the beginning.
After I learned how easy it was to teach a cow to eat weeds, the way I looked at pastures changed too. In fact, the weedier the pasture, the better it looked to me because I knew that weeds were often more resilient AND more nutritious than the grass that most folks prefer. While one of my rancher buddies was pleased when he saw more grass in his pasture as the cows ate more and more weeds, I was a little sad. I’d watched his cows skip over the grass and head straight for the weeds because they liked them so much more.
This unusual way of thinking about forage is why I’ve spent the whole month of March sharing information about weeds and the economic and environmental benefits of weed-eating livestock. I’m hoping that I’ll sway a few of you out there to see things my way. After all, if your livestock eat weeds you have 43% more forage. What’s not to love about that?
Thanks for reading!
Kathy
P.S. If you’re ready to try, here’s a link to all the resources you need to get started.
