Growing and Cutting Nettle for Hay

Hello!

I am interested in growing and cutting stinging nettle as hay for dairy goats. Does anyone have experience doing this? I would especially be curious to know how much seed you used or would use to plant an acre, what sort of yield you all get (the number and weight of bales per area), and how many cuttings you get in a year. Any information on this topic is welcome though!

I live in zone 8b if that is useful.

Have you done a test plot? In some places nettles are apparently laid back. In other places (like mine) they are aggressive and invasive and it's a 10 year plan with a ton of labour to control them.

No, I have not. Would you suggest planting a ten by ten test plot or something larger?

For a test spot, I would suggest something like 4' x 4', using something to be sure it stays contained.

Are you planting in full sun? or will there be some shade?

I can't remember exactly though it seems that they like some sun and some shade.

A lot also might depend on the variety you select.

Here are some threads that might help:

https://permies.com/t/24365/Trouble-Nettles

https://permies.com/t/25195/Growing-Stinging-Nettles

Thank you! Those two threads were informative!

Part of the planned site receives shade in the late afternoon. The rest of it is in full sun.

Have you offered some dried nettles to see if your goats like them? I'm curious.

I guess the reason I'm being nettlesome (ha) is that if stinging nettles go to seed, the seeds stay viable for at least 7 years. The seeds are so tiny that they  easily cling to boots, tools, and equipment, ending up in all sorts of unauthorized places. At least that's been my direct experience; I don't claim it applies everywhere.

I actually have offered them dried stinging nettle. Granted, it was only the dried leaf from a one pound bag meant for tea (which is dried quite differently from animal hay), but they liked it very much - at least most of them did. I would put approximately one Tbsp on their grain or mix it with kelp and put it in a dispenser which they would almost invariably scarf down.  

Wow! Seven years is a while! Thank you for the heads up on that. I knew they were invasive, but I didn't know just how invasive they could be. That is good to know in advance. I will definitely have to give their prolific nature greater weight in the scale.      

Hi Rita, you may even consider allowing the goats to graze the nettle patch. When not in seed, so as not to spread it.

That may help keep the nettles from over taking the world.

Our goats have kept the thorny blackberry vines in check.

Happy goating.

Thank you, Sena! That is an idea, though I wonder how the sting of the nettle would effect them. Would rambling through a patch of nettles and consuming them fresh cause the goats discomfort?  It certainly would help discourage the nettles in their attempt to conquer the world, if the goats were not bothered by it.

Certainly, though, I will need to trial a small plot (I was thinking a raised bed of brick) - or even a pot (placed where no one will brush against it) - before I plant anything large. Since it doesn't grow here naturally to my knowledge, I need to know how it behaved in terms of flowering, setting seed, and the like. The weather here can be strange sometimes.

Happy goating to you also.

My neighbor had a nettle patch right along the side of her goat barn. Her herd would only go after the nettles when they were super young or had just been cut back or they couldn't access the rest of the property. They didn't seem to care about tromping through them to avoid being caught.

I've been trying to establish nettles on my property for about three years now, and haven't seen a single one. But maybe that's because my goats get them before I see them and they don't go to seed.