Will sheep eat pines?

Question

I have a christmas tree farm and I'd like to incorporate livestock to help keep the tall grasses down. I've read that sheep and other ruminants can destroy shade trees, but would they destroy pines too?

Answer 1

Sheep will eat anything---eventually, they will go for the easier forage first then onto others. My husband and I have a tree farm, we also raise Angus cattle and horses. all which will do damage to any tree. The best we found is to fence in the trees and let the livestock graze around them. You could incorporate small animals such as sheep only if you stay right on top of things and move them before they go onto the trees. Horses will eat cotton woods and aspen but they will, as the cows step on and scratch on any tree in reach. We tried to graze the cattle although they are not interested in eating our trees they stepped on and killed many. We lost about 100 out of 500 small spruce we planted one year.
If you want to try smaller livestock I would suggest sheep over goats, as goats will everything in no particular order. If you go for the sheep you can contain them fairly easy with panels, moving the panels as they finish eating grasses and weeds.
Your local agriculture office can be very helpful in any of these getting started, they have tons of info.
Another idea would be to lease your land to rancher for grazing, therefore it would be their responsibility to fence out your tender trees, you could get extra income while helping your land to be more under control.
God Bless
Grandma

Answer 2

Get a flock of geese. they eat grasses, but rarely forbs.

Goats will eat anything but grass. Around here, goatherds contract to clear pastures of everything but grass.