Sheep Eating Willow Sali Garden photo credit – Goats, Willow and Aspirin: A Story of Folk Turned Fact – whistlebare.com

Let’s talk ruminants! Willow is well-liked by mammals as big as moose and as small as voles; no surprise that our livestock have shown a taste for it too. Willow in general is an extremely useful addition to any homestead operation. Fodder, however, is as practical as it gets. 

Silvopastures

Author of the book Silvopasture, Steve Gabriel defines the practice as “trees, animals, and forages for those animals are integrated as a whole system that is greater than just the sum of these parts”. This is not simply expanding your pasture in to the wood line to allow access to trees! A silvopasture is an intentional and dedicated effort that must be properly planned out.

Do your research! This page is a point of reference…seek second and third sources! Don’t just take my word for it! See Recommended Reading below.

Your Herd’s Needs

Or your flock! Beware: I’ll be using those words interchangeably. Here are just a few of the considerations one must make:

• What is the habit of your animal?

The way a flock of geese interact with the landscape is quite different from a flock of goats. As a riparian tree, willow has a shallow root system. Chickens for example will scratch the ground fairly aggressively. We had two ‘Mt Aso’ in one of our coop enclosures: good news is they loved the foliage! Bad news is one didn’t make it! The other managed to rebound once the coop was moved..

• You’ll need to protect your plantings until they become established.

It’s recommended that you protect them until one third of the leaf material is out of reach. Rotating your paddocks give them a chance to recover. 

• Herds develop tastes!

Your herd might like one thing, where your neighbor’s will pass that thing by. You’ll need to diversify your initial selection to find what they prefer. 

• The diversity is mentally stimulating.

A key ingredient to a successful silvopasture is variety. We mammals aren’t so different from one another if you pull the lense back far enough. Changing scenery and varying diet enriches their lives as it does ours.

What Do Willow Do?

Salicin, the compound aspirin is derived from, is still very much present in willow bark. It’s believed that chewing willow has the same inflammation-reducing effect for them as willow bark tea has on us.

Herds that have willow in their diet show a reduction in worms, but also stomach bloat! The condensed tannins contained within willow slow digestion which makes the stomach less hospitable. 

Recommended Plants

The books named below have some further explanations of the exact nutritional content of the willows tested. Be aware those contents, even within the same plant, can vary depending on environmental factors. Aim for vigor but also be sure to diversify. Caprea was found in one study to be superior regarding protein content, but another study found it lacking for fodder due to low growth rate. 

Tempered Expectations

Proper management will see a productive row for many years. Until then you must properly manage them! When planting for fodder plant densely: it’s better to have underperforming willow than not enough. These can take up to three years to become properly established so plan accordingly.

It takes time for the herd to adjust to a new food.

Willow is NOT a 1-1 replacement for fodder! 

They WILL overbrowse if they have little else. If your herds are content they will not. A little rule of thumb from a Chicken Chat I attended a long time ago: a noisy chicken is an unhappy chicken.

If you experience overbrowsing plant more. Take the chance to decide where a new willow hedge would be helpful. Remember diversity!

Willow Integration Points

While helping you to achieve fodder independence, could willow help address another issue? Do you have an eroding streambank? Tasting the dust from the road along with dinner? A few rows along the road would help with that. Willow is great for as (fast) burning wood. As a farmer it’s really difficult to put a price on a reliable source of sturdy, straight sticks: Steve for example uses his coppiced willow to build wattle fences.

Recommended Reading

Silvopasture – Steve Gabriel

Coppice Agroforestry

NRCS documentation

A special thanks to Steve for sharing his experience with us at our local NOFA conference! His workshop was hugely illuminating. We’re super excited to see where he takes the world of silvopastures.

Until I can take some first-hand, I must borrow photos from others. These folks are trailblazers and we appreciate you!

Sheep Eating Willow Sali Garden photo – Goats, Willow and Aspirin: A Story of Folk Turned Fact – whistlebare.com

Silvopasture Illustration – Silvopasture – wsu.edu

Cow in Willow Tunnel – Natural feed additive from willow leaves reduces livestock emissions – allaboutfeed.net

Sheep Under Willows – Could willow be the answer to better lamb growth? – organicresearchcenter.com