Goats/sheep and Bamboo

is bamboo edible for goats/sheep? Was thinking about establishing a grove inside the fence to provide some shade and shelter. My thinking was the bamboo once established would outgrow any browsing pressure from the animals. Plus if it get out of control I could just cut some of it down as fodder. This area is 1 acre fenced in with 3 sheep and 2 goats. Located in Pennsylvania.

It's good animal feed, including for goats or sheep!

Hi Sean, Welcome to Permies!  
There was a great thread a while ago here that discussed using various tree crops as forage for goats. In the discussion it was raised that some forms of bamboo may have toxic properties (removed by cooking) which you may need to be aware of.

It worked for me last winter. (Sheep only) Sorry, I can't access the record of what species my bamboo is. Here's a link to where I posted about it.

Planting a running variety of bamboo is a commitment not lightly taken.  Unless you plan staying put for several decades I wouldn't recommend it.  Planting it in the middle of you property will allow you to use the animals to contain it and keep it off your neignbor's property, they don't take kindly to it spreading.  Check your local laws, it may even be illegal.  

We feed it all winter.  You will need to protect the young shoots for 60 days or so in the spring from grazing damage.  Takes 3-5 years to become estabilished to the point where you can start feeding.  Yellow groove was the variety distributed by the USDA for animal feed some decades back.   It produces lots of smaller (under 2") culms (canes) and can be cut with a good set of loppers.  Unfortunately, it shoots early and the years production is largely lost if a late frost occurs.  Larger varieties require sawing in order to feed.  You may look into the Myers variety for a late shooter.  If the groves get too tight, the animals do not like entering them for fear of getting stuck between the culms.  We keep paths open to facilitate harvest and animal movement but they still prefer the more open areas.  You will also need a way to dispose of the massive amounts of biomass after the animals have eaten the leaves.  We burn ours in open piles and make biochar.  Takes a fairly powerful chipper to chip bamboo and is probably not worth the capital/labor/fuel.

I’ve integrated bamboo into my sheep raising operation for over 20 years.  In the spring they provide fresh shoots for fodder, in the summer they provide shade which can be up to 7 degrees F cooler than ambient due to the bamboo leaf transpiration causing the grove to act like a giant swamp cooler.  In late winter, once the sheep have eaten all of the stockpiled grass in the pastures, I cut older canes out of the groves so they can eat the leaves while the canes left over can be used in the garden the next summer for trellises, etc.  In the pasture,  I fence off the area I wish the grove to occupy, the sheep eat every shoot that pops up outside the fenced area to prevent the bamboo from spreading.  I block the sheep out of the fenced area during the spring shooting season, but they have access to the grove’s interior for the remainder of the year.  The bamboo species I am feeding my sheep include Phyllostachys aurea, P. makinoe, P. rubromarginata, P. edulis, P. bambusoides, and Semiarundinaria fastuosa.

Mike Turner wrote:I’ve integrated bamboo into my sheep raising operation for over 20 years.  In the spring they provide fresh shoots for fodder, in the summer they provide shade which can be up to 7 degrees F cooler than ambient due to the bamboo leaf transpiration causing the grove to act like a giant swamp cooler.  In late winter, once the sheep have eaten all of the stockpiled grass in the pastures, I cut older canes out of the groves so they can eat the leaves while the canes left over can be used in the garden the next summer for trellises, etc.  In the pasture,  I fence off the area I wish the grove to occupy, the sheep eat every shoot that pops up outside the fenced area to prevent the bamboo from spreading.  I block the sheep out of the fenced area during the spring shooting season, but they have access to the grove’s interior for the remainder of the year.  The bamboo species I am feeding my sheep include Phyllostachys aurea, P. makinoe, P. rubromarginata, P. edulis, P. bambusoides, and Semiarundinaria fastuosa.

I love that plan!

Got 8-10 inches of snow last week.  Cut my normal 8-10 culms (canes) and noticed the animals (1 heifer and 7 sheep) ate it unusually fast, despite having free access to decent hay.  All winter, they nibble at native rye that grows during warmer spells.  I guess it makes up quite a bit of their diet, but since it wasn’t accessible due to the snow, the bamboo looked a lot better to them.  Usually, if I cut too much bamboo, they’ll ignore it.  But since they seemed especially hungry for it, I decided to see just how much they would eat and started a much needed thinning.  I have probably cut 100+ culms over the past few days and they have really cleaned them off well.  Win, win.  Now just to clean it all up!