Cream of the pasture
On Mother's Day,
Artemesia finally got the message --- she needs to fill her own belly
first. Okay, so she didn't entirely toe the line immediately. But she
started nibbling a bit of the cream of her pasture, was willing to eat
out in the world while I sat nearby with her kids, and even grazed for
up to half an hour in the forest when I shut the kids in the coop to
keep them out of both of our hair.
I'm ashamed to say that this last scenario is my favorite --- kids are
cute, but I vastly prefer the serenity of enjoying the outdoors with a
gentle adult goat. Artemesia, on the other hand, prefers option two ---
she's only fully content when her kids are accessible to her eagle eye.
To please the crowd, I
usually take momma and babies out to nibble on oats at the bloom stage
for their morning/noon repast. These are the cover crops I planted into close-cut lawn last fall,
and the patch did an amazing job of feeding goats all winter in the
sunnier parts of the yard (while pretty much doing nothing in the
shadier parts of the yard). The goats kept the grains nibbled low enough
that they survived the winter in a vegetative state, and the plants are
now pushing up blooms...which apparently are the tastiest thing since
dried sweet corn.
Artemesia browses through
the patch at head height, eating nothing but the top six inches of
growth. Once she's done, I'll see if more tasty flowers pop up. If not,
I'll sprinkle soybean seeds into the standing grain then have Mark whack
the latter down to ground level. Come fall, I'll definitely plant this
area in oats once again. The amount of enjoyment and forage value we've
gotten out of $5 of cover-crop seeds is truly astounding.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
Maggie --- I suspect she remembers the disappearance of Abigail more. Mark pointed out that really fear rather than loneliness is the hardship for a herd animal living on her own. And even though Artemesia has her kids, she's the sole guardian at the moment. So I don't blame her for being a bit over-protective. Hopefully Aurora will be big enough soon to take some of the weight off her shoulders!
Chris --- You're so right! Sometimes our wet climate gets me down with fungal diseases and mud, but the upsides are definitely worth it!
Nita and Sheila --- I'm so glad to hear from others experimenting with growing grains for livestock browse! Our patch has definitely been an amazing asset. Artemesia would really prefer to eat nothing else.