Sustainable Living, Practical Learning

What amazing animals are these! Smart, kind, fun to watch. And they produce milk and great garden manure and eat lots of things that are otherwise useless. Two Nubian goats, Katia and Rosa, have joined the farm in the Spring of 2007. Their pasture, which underwent several years of restoration efforts, is not ideal for goats, but is good enough to supply some of their needs. About 20 trees are planted for a future forage system. Knowing our climate, it will not happen in the lifetime of Katia or Rosa, but some future goats will have a few things to munch on.

The goats eat tree brush which at the moment must be brought from other areas on the farm. Out of elm, black locust, lilac, apple twigs, and other clippings, they make fragrant, sweet and pure milk. A goat is really a community animal, as it produces more than a small family can consume - and as such they are irreplaceable for building community!

Their place in our ecosystem and in the larger guild of other plants and animals has become apparent within days. The guinea fowl, typically very emotionally unstable, have instantly calmed down. They moved in with the goats in their pasture and no doubt play some other role besides companionship - most likely pest control. As Scott summarized it: “They needed a hoofed animals in their guild”. The chickens also like to be around, and they are known for parazite control in goats. Plants that got chewed up in the first few weeks, as I was getting things goat-proofed, look very good after this refreshing “hair-cut”, which is unexpected in the dry and hot climate of New Mexico. All of the trees (ash, apple, cherry, locust) are sprouting new branches in response, reminding of the old permaculture adage of the resource that is not diminished by use, but is actually increased. The barn bedding (straw which has to be brougth from the outside) is used in the garden. All and all, it seems to be a fantastic arrangement.

This is not a complete list, even for our climate zone.

• Maximillian Sunflowers (goats love sunflowers, and this one is perennial!)
• Jerusalem Artichoke (another perennial sunflower relative)
• Rose (they will eat the pedigreed ones as well as the native rumblers - plant the natives
• Apple (no need to butcher some wonderful productive tree - plant a prolific crab apple or a hawthorn
• Siberian Peashrub
• Honey Locust
• Black Locus
• Native Plum
• Virginia Creeper
• Grape
• Cabbages family: mustard greens, bokchoy, broccoli etc - hand fed

and so on… They probably will eat most of any plant there is. But one can always plant a forage system to offer shade, create habitat for wildlife and also feed the goats.