Gorse as feed and hedging

[brigadoon]

I am currently having a bit of a chat on a rewilding forum where the virtues of gorse "whins" in Scotland - are being extolled for thier stockfeed and hedging properties.

Now I have plenty of whins as do others around me - and apart from roe nipping flowers I have never seen any animal eating or attempting to eat them.

Nor to the best of my knowledge do they offer much as a hedge plant since they do not send much in the way of new growth up if you were to try to lay them, and I have never seen anyone attempt to do so

Happy to be corrected - have I really been missing a trick?

 

[vaderstad]

I think gorse needles were crushed to make animal feed in days gone by. Those were hard times I suspect.

 

[TripleSix]

Sounds like it could be a prickly subject

 

[Dry Rot]

Yes, I recall whins being crushed for animal feed many years ago during a hard winter. The mill is traditionally a round mill stone on a single exle pivoted at one end that runs in a circular trough. It would be powered by a pony or a donkey. Googe images should bring some up. The crushing (in a whin mill) breaks down the thorns so it is more pallatable. Where sheep are hard grazed, gorse bushes are shaped by stock eating the fresh shoots. Gorse is a good natural cover where there is little else, but I've never heard of anyone planting it, except a variated variety in the garden.

 

[exmoor dave]

I am currently having a bit of a chat on a rewilding forum where the virtues of gorse "whins" in Scotland - are being extolled for thier stockfeed and hedging properties.

Now I have plenty of whins as do others around me - and apart from roe nipping flowers I have never seen any animal eating or attempting to eat them.

Nor to the best of my knowledge do they offer much as a hedge plant since they do not send much in the way of new growth up if you were to try to lay them, and I have never seen anyone attempt to do so

Happy to be corrected - have I really been missing a trick?

I believe gorse was put through hammer mills for horse feed mainly, i think it has quite a good analysis.



Great as a hedge material- evergreen, easily shaped, very fast growing in the right environment.
No need to lay it once it gets gappy..... just spark it up!


Just don't tell any Kiwis this.... because they'll probably punch you ?

 

[michael N123]

The best thing about gorse is holding a lighter to that dark dry bit in the bottom and watching it burn up really fast

 

[egbert]

Gorse was long the feed of choice for the working oss on a Dartmoor farm. it was put through chaff cutter.

and I've plenty of stock which'll eat it when pushed.
A hard grazed common would always have topiaried gorse where the sheep and ponies have eaten it.
I was told off for swiping some by granny, 'what will her mares eat next winter?'

hedging? Dunno, i'm all dry stone walls.

A fella west of here was trying to direct chop it into a round baler for biomass I recall....not sure it's a plan long term though, as if the ground is clean enough to be safe doing such things, you'd hardly want it in gorse would you?

Anyway, I'm impressed anyone would want to talk to the rewilding folk -or 'ecofascists' as i heard them described t'other day.
I'd only wish them to an early grave m'self.

 

[brigadoon]

Gorse was long the feed of choice for the working oss on a Dartmoor farm. it was put through chaff cutter.

and I've plenty of stock which'll eat it when pushed.
A hard grazed common would always have topiaried gorse where the sheep and ponies have eaten it.
I was told off for swiping some by granny, 'what will her mares eat next winter?'

hedging? Dunno, i'm all dry stone walls.

A fella west of here was trying to direct chop it into a round baler for biomass I recall....not sure it's a plan long term though, as if the ground is clean enough to be safe doing such things, you'd hardly want it in gorse would you?

Anyway, I'm impressed anyone would want to talk to the rewilding folk -or 'ecofascists' as i heard them described t'other day.
I'd only wish them to an early grave m'self.

It would need to be very hard grazed before our lot would chew it I reckon - we have plenty of gorse but no topiary - hawthorn and bramble get chewed mind you.

Cannot see it as a hedge either - do not see much at all in the way of regrowth when a stem is exposed to air but never tried to lay any

Rewilders are great - they smoke some really good stuff - there is no other explanantion

 

[egbert]

It would need to be very hard grazed before our lot would chew it I reckon - we have plenty of gorse but no topiary - hawthorn and bramble get chewed mind you.

Cannot see it as a hedge either - do not see much at all in the way of regrowth when a stem is exposed to air but never tried to lay any

Rewilders are great - they smoke some really good stuff - there is no other explanantion

Any common hereabouts with plenty of hill sheep, and or ponies on it, and they'll be chewing away. Good feed, as said above.
without looking, i'd say it's the tall eurpean Gorse they prefer -or at least its that which you see topiaried.

My boy cut some and tied it in with some weaned foals backalong, -they did have hay as well- and they soon had it skinned down to peeled sticks.

 

[john432]

Remember a story told to me by my late father...one 2 acre field by the side of the farm drive at one time was covered by gorse, but not normal gorse but a fine unprickly version that was cut ,and chafed to feed to the horses. "Eithyn chaffo". Apparently, the story goes, that fed up with the balava,and having a nice little field producing so little,that my grandfather as a youth ploughed and grubbed up the gorse when his father was away from the farm. And that was the end of it. Very old maps do show that field as rough with gorse etc.

 

[Muddyroads]

I’ve got a vague recollection of somebody getting snowed in on a pass during an expedition, where the horses had nothing but gorse to eat. By the time the snow thawed, the horses had become considerably fatter than at the start of the winter.

 

[brigadoon]

Hmmm - I asked about stockfeed properties and palatability - since we do not sell direct to Tesco & we moved to tractors a year or two ago we do not regard cuddies as "stock"

 

[egbert]

Hmmm - I asked about stockfeed properties and palatability - since we do not sell direct to Tesco & we moved to tractors a year or two ago we do not regard cuddies as "stock"

Have you got sheep? I've seen Blackies/Welsh mountain etc aplenty eating it.

It certainly has feed value, and I suppose it could be harvested mechanically and chopped with some ingenuity...although I'm not sure what the point would be in the long term.

 

[brigadoon]

Yes - sheep and coos - never seen one of them look at a gorsebush sideways never mind eating it - happy enough to hide under them and in them.

And they have plenty of opportunity to eat it I can tell you

 

[Bertram]

My welsh mountains make a good job of nibbling at the youngish bits of gorse, some of them seem to actually seek it out. Which is why I keep them. I’m sure the hoggets are tastier because they’ve got to work around steep ground for their grub and it always surprises me how well they keep condition on it.

 

[Sharpy]

In the right place whin is good, if you flail it back now amd again the new growth is palatable, but also I'm sure its a nitrogen fixer, hence the grass is always lusher under the whins.

 

[egbert]

Yes - sheep and coos - never seen one of them look at a gorsebush sideways never mind eating it - happy enough to hide under them and in them.

And they have plenty of opportunity to eat it I can tell you

what sort of sheep?

 

[Pond digger]

I am currently having a bit of a chat on a rewilding forum where the virtues of gorse "whins" in Scotland - are being extolled for thier stockfeed and hedging properties.

Now I have plenty of whins as do others around me - and apart from roe nipping flowers I have never seen any animal eating or attempting to eat them.

Nor to the best of my knowledge do they offer much as a hedge plant since they do not send much in the way of new growth up if you were to try to lay them, and I have never seen anyone attempt to do so

Happy to be corrected - have I really been missing a trick?

Here you go:-

Dry matter- 51.3%
crude Protein- 5.3%
Oil 1.1%
Carbohydrate- 18.1%
crude Fibre- 24%
Ash- 2.8%
Digestible Crude Protein- 2.2%
Digestible True Protein- 1.5%
Digestible Oil- .5%
Digestible Carbohydrate- 10.9%
Digestible Fibre- 9.6%

 

[primmiemoo]

But, but, but, most farms in the SW Peninsula had a Vuzzy Vield - certainly until early-to-mid Victorian times, going by Estate and Tithe maps I've seen.

Furze (oh, all right, Gorse, then) was harvested for browse - especially bruised through a contraption similar to a mangle - for equines and bovines. It was also important as fuel. Veggs of Furze (bound bundles, or Faggots) got the fire hot quickly, and were useful in cooking. Being a legume, has a high percentage of essential oils that are highly flammable.
It's not impossible that fields reserved specifically for Furze were grubbed out when coal became cheaper and more readily available. They certainty went during and after WWI.

What isn't clear is whether the plants were Western, or European Gorse. My guess is that each would have their own range of uses.

 

[brigadoon]

Here you go:-

Dry matter- 51.3%
crude Protein- 5.3%
Oil 1.1%
Carbohydrate- 18.1%
crude Fibre- 24%
Ash- 2.8%
Digestible Crude Protein- 2.2%
Digestible True Protein- 1.5%
Digestible Oil- .5%
Digestible Carbohydrate- 10.9%
Digestible Fibre- 9.6%

ok - where can I buy the pellets?