So here is what kept me up worrying last night. The place I've envisioned for my goats is on the side of the house where I can see them, away from any dangerous plants (rhododenderons, mt. laurel, weeping cherry). It is bordered by mostly birch and beech woods, so far so good, right? But there is a huge white pine in the middle and this year there are more pine cones down then I've ever seen. The dog actually got all sticky from them and needed a bath. Pine needles fall too, of course. So if I want to keep my (future) goats here, will they nibble on these things and get their milk all resiny tasting? I'd have to rake every day this time of year to keep the pine cones away, and I'd never get all the needles. There is no other really good, clear place for them. They can spend lots of time in our woods, of course, but unsupervised time and their shed needs to be here, I think. Any ideas, experience with the pine issue? Thanks, L
Ours have eating pine branches but we don't usually give our pregnant girls any though but after they kidded, the kids still drank their milk though and we haven't had any yucky tasting milk either!
Our goaties love to eat pine. . . . our neighbor has a tree that borders the property and all the needles fall down, the goats eat them just fine. It's not white pine though. . . . .
I throw pine needle branches in for my goats all the time. They love it, and it's good for them. Pine needles are suppose to act as a natural dewormer. I never noticed any bad flavor in the milk before ... unless I just didn't notice it because I didn't drink much of it. I used most of the milk for bottle babies I had here. However, I'm not sure what kind of pine needle trees my trees are, plus my goats haven't eaten the pine cones. So I can't say for sure if there's any difference with a "white pine" and/or with the pine cones.
Thank you for the replies so far. These are the really large trees, about my arms-wide in width (and they can grow that big in only about 50 years). They are quite common up here in the Catskills. I had thought that I'd read that pine needles gave a taste to the milk,and I thought with all these pine cones it might be worse, but maybe I was wrong, or maybe they won't even be interested. Or maybe I can start a new "Retsina" ( a Greek wine) flavored milk!
goats wont eat the pinecones, and I have never had milk taste weird because of the pine needles. Yes pine is a natural dewormer --- I give mine christmas trees every year and they go crazy for them. We have only oak and pine here in the pine barrons of NJ so thats what my goats get
No Pine Needles for our goats . . . we get horridly bitter milk from it. A natural dewormer? I might try that next worming time . . .
Mine will go running out into the pen after a wind storm and search out the fallen pine limbs. They also get the christmas tree. It is like crack for goats! :ROFL:
for the most part pine is fine, i assume you are talking about the christmas tree type fir and whatnot. Actual true pine trees, ponderosa pines. the kind with the long double needles and large pine cones that have the large pine nuts in them...can cause abortions in pregnant ruminants, this includes goats sheep and cows. beth
Well, these are east coast, what I've been told are "white pines", bundled needles, long (5" or so) cones...
I cant find anything saying the white pine causes abortions. As for the milk tasting off i imagine it would take quite a bit of only eating pine for it to have any effect. beth
I have white pine as well as blue spuce all over the place here...winter time is when I see mine eating the pie boughs...never the cones and mine haven't had any ill effects..milk was fine too.
All our goats have their pens smack in the middle of our pine groves, white and red pine. Never had a prob. Never had yukky milk. Its a no issue here. They dont eat the cones. They love the shed needles. The only thing I have to deal with is my Angora buck pen. The 2 Angora bucks in there use the trees to rub their horns and they try to eat them. Needless to say, the trees in their pen have the trunks all wrapped in chicken wire so the trees are not injured.
This is something I was concerned with, because the property we are working on is 99% pine, the tall kind with lots of pine needles, not sure about the cones. We're clearing a bunch of the trees but not all. I've also read somewhere that pine can cause a goat to abort?
It depends on the "type" of pine tree...blue spruce and white pines are in abundance here and are very safe for goats...maybe try and get the specific name for the pinetree and do a search as to wether they would harm your goats.
Up here in Maine we have alot of white Pine, fir, and hemlock. My goats love the Fir, needles and bark. The Hemlock will make them sick(I was told this by a veteran goat breeder). The long needle pine is another favorite. My milk never has an off taste. I cleared a pasture for them last summer and they ate as much as they wanted.
OH Pine is not harmful at all to the goats. I have lots of friends that have lots of pine trees and the goats love the needles. Matter of fact. people contact us, ask us to bring the goats over to eat up all the vegetation from under the trees to help reduce the chance of fires. Cashmere goats are GREAT for that.