2016 Annual Report for FNC16-1031
Controlling Cedar Tree Invasion by Rotational Grazing Goats through Pasture
Summary
My main work activities this year involved a lot of fencing, and a lot of learning the behavior of goats. I also experimented with a portable fence system made of t-posts and cattle panels which worked, but was too labor intensive to be cost effective long term.
No cedar trees have been completely consumed so far. Many have been nibbled on, but I have not been successful at getting the goats to concentrate on a small batch of trees until consumed yet. That will be the objective for next year; to learn how to get the goats to concentrate their efforts on a few trees without hurting their health.
Objectives/Performance Targets
The proposal for this grant is twofold. First, introduce 6 goats onto the west 33 acres of pasture, containing them to small areas of the pasture at a time with electric fencing. The objective would be to manage grazing pressure so that goat browsing would result in cedar defoliation. Cedar trees do not regrow after all the green is removed.
The portable electric fencing will allow great flexibility in controlling the grazing pressure of the goats in an area of pasture. Secondly, rotational, multi-livestock grazing will be implemented on the same pasture. Using a combination of permanent and portable electric fencing, the pasture will be broken into paddocks, and each paddock will be strip grazed using the portable electric fencing. The goats can run over the area first, eating the cedar trees. The cattle will follow behind, eating the pasture grasses, encouraging them to sprout new growth. By rotational grazing the cattle behind the goats, the pasture soil will become more vigorous and healthier than it currently is, giving the grasses an upper hand over the invasive cedar trees. By weakening/killing the cedar trees and simultaneously strengthening the pasture soil, the spread of the cedar tree seedlings could be halted and reversed.
Accomplishments/Milestones
Work Activities
My main work activities this year involved a lot of fencing, and a lot of learning the behavior of goats. While the plan was to do a lot of interior fencing, it became apparent the first day we brought home our goats that our perimeter fencing was in dire need of updating to make it goat-resistant. The perimeter fencing of our 33 acre pasture was updated with 48” tall field fence.
I also experimented with a portable fence system made of t-posts and cattle panels which worked, but was too labor intensive to be cost effective long term.
It has been a big learning curve working with goats compared to other livestock animals. They have huge personalities and are almost impossible to contain, yet you can’t really be mad at them when they break out. It has been a lot of fun; goats will be a long-term animal on our farm due to this grant. They are just like pets.
No cedar trees have been completely consumed so far. Many have been nibbled on, but I have not been successful at getting the goats to concentrate on a small batch of trees until consumed yet. That will be the objective for next year; to learn how to get the goats to concentrate their efforts on a few trees without hurting their health.
This next year I do still have a few ideas up my sleeve. Right now I have set a bale of alfalfa right next to a hillside covered in small cedar trees. This gets the goats out into the pasture during the winter when little else entices them. My hope is that by keeping the goats in the same area throughout the winter, they will start eating on those trees nearby while still having the nutrients of the alfalfa. This will hopefully lead to the same destruction of trees as in the portable cattle panel experiment, but without losing weight. If this works, it could be done on a larger scale with more goats and actually have an impact on a pasture. For this to be successful though, some of the trees will need to be completely stripped.
I also still plan to complete the interior fencing this spring and summer. This will allow me to better control where the goats are grazing and concentrate them more.
This winter yet I am going to cut down the mature cedar trees. That will remove the seed bank so this problem does not get more out of hand.
Lastly, I have one more experiment to try. When doing the research for the grant last year, I came across some research done by a man in North Dakota (I unfortunately do not remember his name). He stumbled across a potential solution for fast clearing of cedar trees, at least in northern states where it gets cold enough to have a week long or more of single digit weather. He discovered that in single digit weather, small cedar trees will snap off at the base if ran over with a tractor or hit with a tractor loader bucket. I am still waiting for a cold week here in SD to be able to try this. While I will not be using grant funds to try this, I will post my results in my final report.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
The outcome so far has been that the cedar trees have not been impacted by the goats. They have nibbled on them many times, but they do not devour a single tree before moving on. My hope is that the winter will lead to more trees being consumed since the pasture has little else in it to eat.
The results have been less than stellar. While I have observed the goats eating cedar trees with great enjoyment at times, most of the time they ignore the trees. When they do eat the trees, it is usually a nibble here and a nibble there. This is most likely due to the fact that goats are browsers, not grazers. They are not content to stay in one area long, but rather move around the pasture. When I was experimenting with the portable cattle panel setup, the goats did eat most of the trees inside the perimeter, but at the cost of their health. They started getting skinny. My conclusion so far is that while it is possible to get goats to eat the trees, to get them to kill trees will come at the cost of their health without a very watchful eye on the part of the farmer. In the time that it takes to manage goats to that point, 10 times the trees could be cut down by hand with minimal effort.
I have also learned that goats do not respect temporary electric fencing. They tend to plow through instead of back away from the fencing if they touch it. Baby goats could be trained, but I have so far had little luck training my older goats. I will continue to experiment though.
Outreach
This year I have not done as much information sharing as I plan to do next year, but I did start a project with three local 4H’ers. They helped me with some fencing one Saturday morning, and we meet monthly before their 4H meeting to go over topics regarding general goat health and care. This next summer they will be helping me with more fencing, and they plan to show goats at the fair. It has been fun to see them learn and bond with the goats.
Next year I plan to do a field day to report my findings to the local community.