garden scraps for sheep?

[Little Bo Boop]

My fall garden will be played out here soon. Lots of broccoli, spinach, cauliflour etc...can I give all that to my sheep when I pull it up? My garden is right by the pen that I keep the sheep in at night...one little wether has been coming over regularly to snag broccoli leaves that I pinch off and feed him ;-) anyway if it won't hurt them (I would think it would even be good for them?) I'd just as soon feed it to them then toss everything in the compost pile.

 

 

Betty

[kimkathan]

I've given fall scraps to our sheep. Ours won't eat the fibrous roots of the broccoli, cabbage, ect. Guess they don't feel they're that hard up yet. I've ended up cutting the root off, throwing it into the compost then throwing the rest over. Just my personal thing.

[Little Bo Boop]

I've given fall scraps to our sheep. Ours won't eat the fibrous roots of the broccoli, cabbage, ect. Guess they don't feel they're that hard up yet. I've ended up cutting the root off, throwing it into the compost then throwing the rest over. Just my personal thing.

 

 

Thanks! I'll just plan on giving them the stalks and leaves then....like I said, no use it all going to waste.

 

Betty

[NorthfieldNick]

Considering that folks grow some brassicas for forages, all the broccoli, cauli, kale, etc are fine. Most sheep love them! My sheep cleared a new pasture of wild mustards (which are brassicas) last summer.

 

Beet greens & Swiss Chard (same plant) in large quantites can cause problems, I think.

 

Edited to fix typos...

[Little Bo Boop]

Considering that folks grow some brassicas for forages, all the broccoli, cauli, kale, etc are fine. Most sheep love them! My sheep cleared a new pasture of wild mustards (which are brassicas) last summer.

 

Beet greens & Swiss Chard (same plant) in large quantites can cause problems, I think.

 

Edited to fix typos...

 

 

Hmmmm, really.. Thats good to know though, because I've planted a lot of that,(swiss chard) and had planned on sharing it with the sheep as well. Guess I'll just give them limited amounts of that then. And one other question, I'm assuming that the sheep should not be given any access to tomato plants? I believe tomato leaves are toxic?

[NorthfieldNick]

All the solanacea (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant) plant parts are toxic. They're nightshades. They're toxic even to humans. I've never met a sheep that would actually eat a tomato plant... but that's not to say they wouldn't! I had a few ewes bust into the garden last year, and they went right past the tomatoes to decimate my sunflowers. Arg!

[Bill Fosher]

Hi Ben,

 

I'm unaware of any problems with beets or chard, other than goiters in sheep that graze them as their primary food source and have an iodine deficiency. Do you have any more more info?

 

Beet pulp, made from sugar beets which are also the same species as swiss chard and table beets, is a real common feed ingredient.

[NorthfieldNick]

Bill, I think it's just the leaves of the plants, not the roots. I also think they have to eat a lot of Beta vulgaris to have any effect.

 

We're in an area of very deficient soils, so maybe it's a more regional thing. We're so deficient, we can get away with our sheep eating the dairy minerals that have copper in them (only when the sheep busted into the cow pasture and cleaned out the mineral tub).

 

My friend ran her sheep through their garden and had trouble with them on the chard patch. They're market growers & had many hundreds of row feet of chard. I'm guessing it was an iodine deficiency. Most of us here add a lot of kelp meal to our standard minerals to keep our sheep balanced...