What else can I safely feed my sheep?

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What else can I safely feed my sheep?

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deanom

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 06 4:47 pm Post subject: What else can I safely feed my sheep?
Whilst putting my main crop carrots and beetroot into store, I started to wonder whether I could feed the huge mound of leftover leaves to my sheep? I'm quite content to compost these things but it did lead me to wonder, what garden produce/byproducts could I safely feed to sheep? Any suggestions?

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 06 8:29 pm Post subject:
The sheep will love beet leaves, maybe less keen on the carrots, but they'll eat them (rabbits, on the other hand, love carrot leaves). Any kind of beet leaf is good for sheep- and they go mad over swiss chard! Off the top of my head, the following goes in the sheep here: Spinach Beetroot Brassicas Peas & Beans Chard Turnips Parsnip Sweetcorn

Desiderata

Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 25
Location: Crymych, Pembrokeshire

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 06 1:45 pm Post subject: Foxgloves and bracken

Hi all

My wife and I are about to exchange on a house in Pembrokeshire with 1.5 acres (the waiting is killing us!!!).

The land has not been grazed for years and is a beautiful meadow; the margins are infested with bracken and there are the off foxglove too. My question can we run our sheep on the land in the safe knowledge that the foxglove and bracken won't harm them - they will try most things (and love ivy). Same question for pigs. I heard that some bracken is ok for pigs, but also from someone else that it is poisonous.

Also, any ideads of how to contriol / eradicate bracken without resorting to chemicals? Is it best to 'whip' it or am I better cautting it with a scythe?

Any ino gratefully received.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 06 2:32 pm Post subject:
We had masses of foxglove and bracken on the margins of our main pasture when we first put sheep in there, and it seems to have done them no harm at all. They particularly like the young shoots of bracken (though not as much as a neighbour's laurel hedge on the other side of the pasture ).

Desiderata

Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 25
Location: Crymych, Pembrokeshire

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 06 3:01 pm Post subject:
That's encouraging. We can always eleccy fence the worst bits off, but ideally i'd like them to have more room to roam so I can rotate properly to reduce worms (and thus the need for more chemicals) and poaching (unlikely to be bad as we will be on the side of a hill). This may all be academic if it all falls through...

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 06 3:11 pm Post subject:
None of our animals will touch foxgloves. We have a great display of them each and every year.

deanom

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 06 6:34 pm Post subject: For Rob R
Thanks for the reply. Shame that I wasted so many beet leaves. Still plenty left in the ground though. Have you tried courgettes? Cheers

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