What eats goldenrod?

Hi,
I'm looking around at land, and the abandoned fields are obviously cheaper, but around here, if they are not actively being used, they tend to be taken over by goldenrod before the trees start growing. Are there any herbivores (cows, sheep, goats) that like goldenrod? I'm sure its great for the bees, and i don't mind some, but a whole field is a bit much. Is there an animal that could be used to take it down?

You can eat Goldenrod.

Dried leaves and flowers to make tea. Make sure the leaves are fungus free. A toxic fungus can grow on the leaves.  reports the seeds of several species were used as food.  There are herbal applications.

https://www.eattheweeds.com/solidago-odora-liberty-tea-2/

Mr. Google said goats will eat it and other small animals.

I once planted goldenrod because it is deer resistant.

Er... Garden centres? Could you not pot it on and sell it?

Anne beat me to it, people can eat goldenrod. I've been eating it most days this spring, though I'm guessing that will only continue to work while the plants are small and/or if I keep harvesting them so they stay that way. The flowers and leaves have many medicinal uses. I like to make a salve for wounds and achy muscles out of the flowers. Despite the belief goldenrod causes allergies, it's actually helpful in treating them, among many other things. So you could have an abundance of material for making medicine.

There are some serious saponins in goldenrod. I've considered feeding some to the chickens, but most of what I've read suggests the saponins could be problematic for them, so I haven't tried. While I do eat it, my body definitely tells me that I should only eat a small amount. Perhaps this isn't true for all animals, but could be worth considering.

My rabbits love to eat it. I haven't tried it myself though. I'll give that a go.

Here are some herbal uses of Goldenrod.

Thank you all for the replies. Sounds like I could use some... but I don't know if I could eat a whole field or use it all for medicine (unless I wanted to go into business or something, which is not my intention).

Good to know goats might eat it.

And interesting that rabbits seem to enjoy it as well.

This is one of the fields I have considered, just to give you an example of how much goldenrod we are talking.

Cows.  My fields were pure stands of goldenrod when I put my cattle in 10 years ago.  I dare you to find some now.

While it may be difficult to put a whole field of goldenrod to use all on your own, if the area is fenced (or temporary fencing can be put up), my family has had good luck with finding local farmers with goats or cows who are happy to find someone who is willing to offer pasture to graze on for a month or so.

'Land Leasing' for grazing is a thing - if they're willing to transport the animals, you could charge a small fee to use your land to graze on.
Though if you only want them to graze the area for a short time (to minimize compaction of the soil), the amount you charge for pasture grazing might be lower than market rate, since it's less grazing and more moving animals for the farmer.

That way you could have the benefits of grazing (plant matter to urine/manure, trampled vegetation to rot, etc) without the financial and land cost of long-term animal ownership.

However, you may want to survey the area to make sure there's not a bunch of plants which are toxic to whatever animal is being invited over to graze.

My dog eats goldenrod, though probably not a whole field of it!

While I am going to go a bit off topic soon enough, I have found that fungi seem to like them. When I buried some last year making swales, I saw that as they died off, a white fungus would spread over the surface in moist, aerobic areas. I also raked them together in gentle u-shapes this spring and mixed them with food scraps, and mushrooms have begun sprouting up from the edges. Maybe grow some edible and medicinal soil and compost-dwelling mushrooms?

Here is what I am doing. I had been trying to see the solution in the problem with the goldenrod monoculture near my house, but most of what I am seeing is not saying "solution", except maybe shaggy manes. Goldenrod seems to have some good uses as mentioned: as food, medicine, and dye-- but they also dry out the soil, don't do that much to build it, leave the soil between the stalks exposed to erosion, and discourage diversity in meadow ecosystems-- an imbalance of species? Here are some things I have been doing, as my situation is similar:

I pick meadow plants for food and other purposes. Goldenrod does not like trampling; they die back wherever they are trampled, and edge-loving species like milkweed flock around wherever we walk. Eating milkweed, and other meadow plants if there are many of much nutrition and medicine, is likely to benefit their populations more than leaving them alone. It shows how much we are a part of our ecosystems, in sometimes unforeseen ways. Milkweed grows best for eating and for fiber in richer soils, where goldenrod or other herbs form very dense stands. Also, I uncovered a patch of field mint languishing underneath the canopy last year, and cut back the goldenrod so that they could grow more strongly. They have been partially replaced by a strong-rooted, thin-stemmed grass, maybe a fescue (I have to check when I look at them again), who conserves water and soil and lets more of the mint grow.

Cutting back the goldenrod, and sowing hardy food and green manure plants. This, like the last, is not exactly getting rid of the goldenrod in a particular area as I might if I dug them up, but rather encouraging a diversity of plants. Unless they are cut at the ideal time, when the goldenrod is flowering, I may need to consistently cut them back with a sickle, depending on who grows. I sowed winter rye from a local landrace last year, around the time of the first frost, directly into some areas with goldenrod-- and at this point they are about done flowering. I imagine if they had been sown earlier, they would have partially taken over those patches.

Then there is the option of digging them up and composting the roots. I have done this in a few areas-- this year, where I planted sunflower, beans, sorghum, and corn, and last year while making a terrace. After cutting and waiting a few days for the roots to die back, I laid the them on the surface of the soil in other places as mulch.

I hope these ideas help with being part of a beautiful and diverse meadow ecosystem.

My sheep eat goldenrod (and lots of other things including pest and introduced species like poison ivy, multiflora rose, and japanese honeysuckle) with no ill effects.

BTW, goldenrod makes not just a nice tea (in small amounts), but is a good source of a fairly bright and fast yellow green dye on wools with alum and can be used by itself for ecoprinting on silk.

My Katahdin sheep ate it no problem.