• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Looking for a list of fodder tries for Southern Ohio USA

 
Posts: 493
29
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am looking for a list of possible fodder trees that would work in a Zone 6b.
This is around the Cincinnati ohio USA area. Temperate climate
I know Mulberry does well
Some honey locust in the area but alot of flat land with heavy clay.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Looking at pollarding and coppicing opportunities.
 
Posts: 17
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You may want to look into the work of Mark Shepard at New Forest Farm. He's grazing cows and pigs through chestnut, oak, hazelnut, apple, and berry polyculture. They eat the fallen fruits. So any of those plants would be an option as a rotationally grazed silvopasture assemblage, providing great supplement to the pasture throughout the season. The other benefit of a silvopasture system like that is that it extends the seasonality of the pasture, which means less need for off season fodder. Others to consider are bamboo (cattle love the tender tops, so rather than throw them away when you harvest for poles, feed them instead...not technically pollarded, more coppiced for poles), Tilia species (pollard very well, but also a prime human edible, so perhaps you might plant it for your own personal use, with an added fodder benefit), siberian pea shrub (caragana arborescens, seeds only, especially good for poultry), and beech (fagus sp., again also a good human edible, lemony new growth in spring, not entirely positive it's good for fodder, but I know the nuts definitely have been fed to livestock historically).
 
Posts: 14
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
willow, poplar, black locust plus the above mentioned species have worked for us in northeastern ohio. . . we are wanting to try fragrant spring tree as well.
 
Posts: 142
Location: Sunset Zone 27, Florida
2
forest garden trees rabbit
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
all fruit trees not of the prunus family.. . and i see someone already said willow, awesome! also maple trees. i feed my rabbits sycamore leaves - they didn't like it at first but now they do!
also plants of the rose family ... and i think aster family is probably safe too but can't find any research on it.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1701
Location: southern Illinois, USA
294
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Evergreen plants are particularly valuable since they will provide forage when other things have lost their leaves and animals must eat bark, buds, pods, nuts, etc. and/or be supplemented with grain and/or hay. There is a whole cadre of evergreen shrubs that are popular landscaping plants, easy to grow and propagate, and often have either escaped or could potentially do so. Their diversity diminishes as you move north but there should still be some available to you. Privets come first to mind... Do some research though. Azaleas and rhododendron, for instance, are toxic. Goats, at least, will browse a little on most conifers, but they won't be happy if they are their exclusive diet.
 
You save more money with a clothesline than dozens of light bulb purchases. Tiny ad:
12 DVDs bundle
https://permies.com/wiki/269050/DVDs-bundle
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic