Wednesday 14th December 2016
Sheep and ivy!
Operation woodchip continues! We had another truckful delivered today. Unfortunately though, due to the soggy ground, we had to get Mike (from West Country Tree Surgeons) to tip it just by the gate to our 4-acre field, rather than drive into the field itself and then straight through to the Collecting paddock. This meant we then had to move it to the Collecting paddock by hand: thank goodness for the quad and trailer – at least we could move a lot at once, albeit having to firstly shovel it into the trailer and then back out again.
The sheep benefited hugely mind you because the area where the woodchip was tipped is not normally an area they can access, but because we had gates open, they could. And being sheep, they did: ‘oooh look, an open gate, we MUST be meant to go through it…’. It is all quite wild with a couple of old apple trees and some long since managed hedgerows but for the sheep, it was an autumn wonderland of opportunity. Some enjoyed finding the last few windfalls, others gave themselves lots of roughage by eating half dead stalks and leaves and Bressay and Lamorna (pictured) tucked into the ivy.
There are mixed opinions about ivy: some farmers/smallholders might tell you it is poisonous and to NEVER allow livestock to eat the berries. Others will enthuse about its medicinal properties and tell you they actually feed it to sick sheep to get the appetites going. A lot of the time livestock will avoid plants that are not good for them but this is NOT always the case (as we learnt the hard way some years ago, when some fig (that we knew was a ‘no’ for livestock) became mixed up with other trees that we then fed to our pygmy goats – they may be small but we can assure you that great heights were reached with their projectile vomiting..). On the other hand goats will strip a hedgerow, leaving all foxgloves in tact – foxgloves being very poisonous to most livestock.
Our experience is that wild ivy (as opposed to cultivated varieties) is absolutely fine for sheep, goats and cattle, although it may be wise not to allow animals to gorge on it (the same as with most additional plant life you may want to feed them).
Happy sheep and also happy cattle who as well as eating grass and hay today, tucked into the straw that was actually intended as bedding in their field shelter!!!
There are mixed opinions about ivy: some farmers/smallholders might tell you it is poisonous and to NEVER allow livestock to eat the berries. Others will enthuse about its medicinal properties and tell you they actually feed it to sick sheep to get the appetites going. A lot of the time livestock will avoid plants that are not good for them but this is NOT always the case (as we learnt the hard way some years ago, when some fig (that we knew was a ‘no’ for livestock) became mixed up with other trees that we then fed to our pygmy goats – they may be small but we can assure you that great heights were reached with their projectile vomiting..). On the other hand goats will strip a hedgerow, leaving all foxgloves in tact – foxgloves being very poisonous to most livestock.
Our experience is that wild ivy (as opposed to cultivated varieties) is absolutely fine for sheep, goats and cattle, although it may be wise not to allow animals to gorge on it (the same as with most additional plant life you may want to feed them).
Happy sheep and also happy cattle who as well as eating grass and hay today, tucked into the straw that was actually intended as bedding in their field shelter!!!