Agroforestry for goats: New cooperation with the goat whisperer from Hanselaer

In autumn of this year, Jelmer de Groot signed a cooperation agreement with our Agroforestry Living Laboratory. Now it’s time to start planning how an agroforestry project can be realised on the Demeter- and Bioland-certified Hogefelderhof farm in Kalkar-Hanselaer. The big challenge is Jelmer de Groot’s animal friends: He keeps around 150 goats as a sideline, for which young trees are a real delicacy.

Goat, the herbivorous omnivore

The goat, formerly known as the little man’s cow, is a herbivorous omnivore, at least almost. In addition to grasses, herbs, flowers and fruit, goats also like to eat leaves, bark and small twigs from trees, hedges and shrubs, thus adding important nutrients to their diet. As talented climbers, these ruminants can even climb trees to reach tasty food.

And an agroforest is now to be created on their grazing land? ‘Absolutely,’ says Jelmer de Groot. He is very concerned about the ongoing changes to the Lower Rhine landscape, which he has grown fond of over the years. ‘The hedgerows between fields, which are also typical of the Lower Rhine, are still disappearing to enable the cultivation of larger adjoining areas,’ he observes with regret. He would like to take the opposite approach with his farming. This is because an agroforestry system provides shade, acts as a windbreak and counteracts soil erosion, to name just a few of the many advantages of the system.

Goats also suffer from heat stress

‘Due to climate change, we have experienced very hot summers in recent years. Goats need sufficient protection from direct sunlight, especially during the hot midday hours. Trees can provide valuable shade here if they can grow big enough and don’t fall victim to the goats‘ ravenous appetite at a young age,’ says Jelmer de Groot, explaining his motivation for establishing an agroforestry system. In recent summers, the goats have only grazed the grassland in the cool morning hours. Over lunchtime, they stayed in the barn and were fed with freshly cut grass. The feed is important, notes Jelmer de Groot: ‘You can taste what you feed.’ His goats are fed hay, grass, clover grass, lucerne, grain, barley and triticale – a mixture of wheat and rye – from his own farm.

Goat’s milk – a great alternative

The goats are milked in the morning and at midday. Unlike dairy cows, goats do not have to be lambed every year to produce the same milk yield. Jelmer de Groot explains: ‘They lamb twice in their lives.’ And goat’s milk offers several advantages over cow’s milk. For example, it is lactose-free and contains the finished vitamin A and not its precursor carotene. Customers for the milk from Hogefelderhof include a German manufacturer of infant formula, a cheese dairy and a Dutch company that produces goat’s ice cream in various flavours.

Just how does the tree survive the goat?

Together with Jannis Menne, research associate in the Agroforestry Living Laboratory, he is now working on a plan to determine which pastures can be planted goat-proof with trees and so-called fodder-leaf hedges. His pastures will become a real-life laboratory in order to research various options for bite protection, among other things, and thus perhaps be able to give other interested goat farmers valuable tips for creating a shady meadow orchard in the future.