[harry]

hi......i keep ducks that free range.... but the 1 acre they are on has a high proportion of nettles and docks every year... i have sprayed some years but they are back again.... what animal likes these, i supose a couple of goats would keep them in check.......

[Sandy]

Nettels = Beer and wine. soups and pasta etc and good for nitrogeon in the soil and I feed my hens docs!!!!!

[faith0504]

oh nettle soup is lovely, i will try my hens with some docks that would be a way to get rid of the blighters 

[harry]

thanks but no more receipes... i havnt got time to do all that,,,theres enough nettles to open a soup kitchen... my hens dont eat the docks either.... so far i assume its a goat.

[Antz]

Both my sheep and my pygmy goats enjoy nettles, but not until this time of year. I think its to do with them flowering.
The only thing with goats is you will need a good solid fence, where as sheep don't try and escape quite so much.

[Plantoid]

Harry,
Unless the goats are pygmies be prepared to christen them Houdini one  & Houdini two .. better escape artists I've yet to come across.

Goats do not eat grass as such, infact they eat almost anything else that they are not obtained for. It's is all down to goats being browsers not grazers .

 Though if you really do want a patch to be mowed by them then tethering the goat is the only way I know of it happening .. it gets hungry and bored so eats everything in its reach.
 The big down side of tethering is it can be harmful , in that the goat can become injured , chokes or get tangled on the tether or anchor stake.

[calamityjane]

pigs will clear the nettles docks etc had a goat many years ago if i strimmed them he'd eat them destroyed my fencing  we have pigs they like to dig up the ground and do a great clearing job most people use electric fencing to keep them in and then when they are big enough if you wished you could take them to slaughter we have a pig we are feeding up i have found the pigs to be easy to keep like attention squeal when hungry lol our hens go into piggies pen pigs don't bother them too.  jane

[suziequeue]

Nettles and docks go great under the scythe and then onto the compost heap to feed all that goodness back into my compost. Same story with docks although - as perennials - they will come back if the root is still intact.

They are composted aswell but I wouldn't put anything with even a hint of a flower on the heap!

[ellisr]

I scythe all my nettles down especially at this time of year and the sheep and horse come along and eat them up. They also like thistles that have been cut and left for a day to dry a bit

[SallyintNorth]

I scythe all my nettles down especially at this time of year and the sheep and horse come along and eat them up. They also like thistles that have been cut and left for a day to dry a bit

I have been given a scythe, I have to get the handles moved so it is the right height for me before I can do too much damage to our nettles and thistles.

BTW, cattle love the cut plants even more than sheep - they can be a real nuisance when topping, you have to keep cutting different areas because they'll be all over the bit you cut last pass.

My Fells eat the thistle flowers off the top of the standing plant, just before they seed - how useful is that?!  Next year I'll have to plan a rotation around all our thistle hotspots - except most of them have far too much good grass to let a Fell loose on them in summer. 

[ellisr]

I scythe all my nettles down especially at this time of year and the sheep and horse come along and eat them up. They also like thistles that have been cut and left for a day to dry a bit

I have been given a scythe, I have to get the handles moved so it is the right height for me before I can do too much damage to our nettles and thistles.

BTW, cattle love the cut plants even more than sheep - they can be a real nuisance when topping, you have to keep cutting different areas because they'll be all over the bit you cut last pass.

My Fells eat the thistle flowers off the top of the standing plant, just before they seed - how useful is that?!  Next year I'll have to plan a rotation around all our thistle hotspots - except most of them have far too much good grass to let a Fell loose on them in summer. 

I noticed that with my horse the big bumbling lump very carefully nibbles off the flowers of any thistles he can find and even stands banging his hoof until I let him into the small paddock so he can nibble the flowers from any in there and then comes out looking like the cat that got the cream and goes into his stable

[Plantoid]

Grazon is a brilliant  systemic  killer for broad leaf weeds . one or two hits in spring or around a few weeks ago when growth is in full swing and they are gone.
 
I borrowed a big knapsack sprayer and hit our 1.5 acre chest high nettle , dock thistles and bramble infested bed that was referred to as a garden in the sales blurb .
 It worked and saved me years of gut busting graft .
 I then reseeded the whole area in a quality seed and ended up with a great swath of green lush grass for Raspuitin the merino goat ,  Leopold the goose and 24 morant cages of gunieapigs on a rotation cycle of grazing.


 Goats are browsers and will eat anything except what you'd hoped they would the only way to get a goat to eat an area clean is to tether it securely  close to a clean water tub in a manner that will not hurt it & let it eat the weeds or starve .
 move it on every couple of days once it has done its job .

or

Make a Houdini  proof pen that you can move around the weed infested plot say 30 by 30 and basically do the same ..don't feed it let .... it get hungry and eat the weeds.