by Troy Bishopp
Losing the pasture component to winter really hurts when you’re still growing livestock. How about pine tree, animal pop-sickle for them to munch on and “spruce” up the hay diet?
“Turns out, goats are fantastic Christmas tree recyclers, who are more than happy to give your tree the sweet release it’s been pining for”, said Digg.com Features Editor, Steve Rousseau. If you don’t believe it, type “goats grazing Christmas trees” into your internet browser and you’ll see a plethora of pine grinder examples.
Spending some of my youth on the back of a garbage truck conditioned me to all the opportunities of feedstock procurement, while mitigating landfill costs. Like a scene out of Charlotte’s Web; harvesting donuts, breads, vegetables and taboli made for interesting family conversations and really happy chickens and pigs. The funny part was as businesses got to know their sanitation specialist as having a farm, they would actually set aside day old products for pickup.
The ruminant part of the business fared well on just hay and minerals. However, watching our bored (not Boer) Alpine goats take our Christmas tree down to a bare twig made me think about this as a complimentary feed source to hay.
After Christmas, most folks put this “green” food out to the curbside for pickup by the town’s highway department. When I went to town for grain, I slid into the nearest cul-de-sac and harvested some day old trees on the return trip. The deer “wannabes” went crazy for the spruces, firs and pines. Low and behold, they didn’t eat as much hay with this new grain substitute, therefore saving us money on purchased feed. A simple concept that worked, I loved it.
The farmer and his slow moving pickup on the prowl for trees made for interesting looks and even more curious conversations with homeowners. Most hadn’t talked with a farmer in years, let alone a crazy grazing one. They were so thrilled by this cool idea that they offered to deliver theirs’ and others’ trees to the farm, while grabbing a few Kodak moments of their friendly herbivores. Beautiful marketing angle! I loved it when a plan came together.
So there it was, a new and improved recycling system: Christmas trees grown and harvested in New York, placed in a home and adored with holiday memories, taken to a farm to feed animals, animals produce milk and meat while providing “pelleted” nutrients, and finally tree is chipped for bedding and compost is fed back to the underground livestock to start the whole process over again. Brilliant!
French Author, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, said “The more things change the more they stay the same”. Christmas tree eating goats? Good as it ever was, even in 2023.
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