Mulberry Tree Leaves Health Benefits - Why Goats Love Them!
I've had several Mulberry trees growing in pots in the garden for a couple years now. They really really need to get out of the garden and planted on the farm to grow up to be beautiful healthy trees.
One thing I love Mulberry trees for is for food for the livestock. The goats, ducks, chickens... they all love something about mulberry trees. The ducks and chickens love the berries. They drop to the ground and are quickly gobbled up by the birds below. That is, whatever the birds IN the trees don't get! The goats, however, are especially fond of the leaves.
Notices the mulch around the tree. That is to help retain moisture in the soil and to build soil life to help this tree grow as strong as possible. The goats also donated some manure to sprinkle in the planting hole as well for some nutrients to get this young tree off to a good start.
Mulberry Tree Leaves Health Benefits
The health benefits of the mulberry leaf is reported to be very high for livestock and humans. Below is an image taken from www.greensilk.com that shows some of the health benefits. I also found multiple sites that reported the protein to be somewhere between 15% - 20%. It's no surprise that the goats are after this available super food!
Important Note about Eating Mulberry Leaves
It is important to note the only the young leaves are edible by humans and only after cooking them. According to eattheweeds.com
Unripe fruit and mature leaves have a white sap that’s intoxicating and mildly hallucinogenic.
So, why all the fences around the tree?
If I don't keep the goats out of this tree for now they will completely destroy it! They have no idea that they can have a lifetime of good food if they eat in moderation. Right now I have this tree completely surrounded with fencing to keep the goats off the tree until it has a few years to grow up. This tree needs to be large enough to have lots of branches above where the goats can reach before they can be allowed around it.
For now I'll supplement the goats feed with some of the leaves from the mature Mullberry tree. In time I hope to have 5 or 6 full sized trees to pull leaves and berries from to feed the livestock and us.
Fences make for a full tree in the future ;-) Great information on the benefits of it!
i love this information on mulberry leaves...thanks daddykirbs!!!! we have white and persian growing in our garden. time to tune into the leaves..not just the berries!
Do some research about when to harvest and how to prepare them. From the light reading I've done there is a lot of benefit but also some risk if eaten incorrectly.
thanks! will do @daddykirbs! i appreciate the heads UP
Thinking to the future, excellent job! Goats just want it NOOOOWWWWW!!!!
Like perpetual toddlers!
Thanks for this precious lesson... We are moving to a raw pieace if land to build a homestead in a couple mpnths.
One thing we want is goats (just a couple) anf I jave been reading up on mulberry trees a little. I don't think we have them on the property but we can always grow them like you're doing.
Thanks, following you for more reading!
Best of luck to you with your new homestead! Yes, plant all kinds of trees that you can eat or feed to your livestock. With goats... build a great enclosure first, then add goats ;)
Cool, thank you for the tips! We met someone in England who had a big pig pen in the middle of an apple orchard... happy apple eating pigs they were!
Wow this is fascinating...especially the hallucinogenic part lol!! Do the goats eat the mature leaves too? Thank you for sharing!!!