[shygirl]

we have a big pond with a half acre island which we have used for summer grazing for goats for the last few years.
it was ungrazed for 20 years and 5ft high with plants but is now 50% bare soil. it was covered in willowherb but this has disappeared since the goats set foot on it. being an island, it doesnt seem to catch many seeds from land nearby.
we are wanting to reseed it but as it was rough soil from digging out the pond, it is still loose, sandy and stoney in places, not what you can call top soil as it was dug out from the 4ft deep pond. it is also steep around the edge but flat on top. it did have a tree but the goats have de-barked it 
any ideas on the best seed to bind the loose soil together more but also is ideal for grazing goats?
im hoping to use the goats feet to help get the seed into the ground, but do i need to get the goats off once the seeds have started to germinate? (catching them will involve alot of trampling feet)
thanks

[Dogwalker]

nettles, thistles and brambles

sorry no sensible suggestions.
The impoverished soil might be ok for wild flower meadow.  Any thing you plant as goat food would need to be well established before they get to it or as you've found will quickly be bare again.

[clydesdaleclopper]

You want a combination of root depths to help to stabilise the soil and to draw nutrients from different levels in the soil. I would use chicory (as it is deep rooted and a great mineral accumulator that goats love), some grasses and at the edges things like meadowsweet, and other damp loving flowers. One other thing to put in would be some running bamboo - this will also help to stabilise the soil and some varieties are great fodder for goats (they have them at Scottish Bamboo in Turriff).

[shygirl]

i will just add that the island is about 8ft above water level and is very dry as its sandy and doesnt hold much moisture, infact the goats seem to like lying in dustbaths in the sun.
also the goats tend to be too thin unless fed on beef stock nuts so growing something nutrient rich would save me the hassle on taking hard feed over. (they are wormed etc)
we do have nettles but they are so powerfully stingy, i feel guilty about those.

i think we will reseed in sept and leave aslong as needed, whether 6 mths or 18 mths?

keep the ideas coming! 

[Dogwalker]

My dairy goats followed behind while I scythed 5foot nettles yesterday, hadn't even had a chance to wilt and they were happily munching them.

How about buckwheat, supposed to be a good tolerant green manure to build soil structure.  Haven't grown it yet so no first hand experience.

[clydesdaleclopper]

The chicory is definitely nutrient rich as Mackenzie in his book on goat husbandry states that is an almost complete source of the vitamins and minerals that goats need.