Goats set for farm’s traditional Christmas tree feast

It’s a holiday feast fit for a goat.

Fir, spruce and pine trees are as delicious as turkey and trimmings to about 20 goats at a farm just south of Winnipeg.

Aurora Farms will once again welcome donations of trees once the presents have been opened, the lights turned off, and the ornaments removed.

“Goats are naturally browsers rather than grazers; in the wild, they’ll prefer bushes and shrubs, kind of heartier foraging, over pastureland,” said Aynsleigh Kerchak, general manager at Aurora. “For them, they like a chance to deal with the leaves and needles on the trees.”

Kerchak said goats are valuable partners for farmers and are rented out across parts of the country and internationally to help clear unwanted vegetation such as thistle and burdock.

Beyond the benefit to landowners, goats also gain health advantages from chewing on pine needles and bark.

“It’s a nutrient boost in the middle of winter,” Kerchak said. “They still like dried hay, but it’s nice to get a fresh tree. They’ll eat the bark off of it, and the pine needles give a natural deworming effect to them. Some years, it really benefits their health.”

Aurora Farms has been accepting Christmas trees for nearly a decade. While numbers vary year to year, Kerchak said they often receive close to 100 trees at their 4265 Waverley St. location.

“That’s a good number for us,” she said. “Nothing will go to waste. Once the goats get tired of it, we will use them as snow fencing, and in the spring, we get someone out to turn it all into wood chips to use in our garden.”

Goats really seem to prefer pine trees, with their longer, narrow needles, Kerchak said.

“But they’ll go for any tree,” she said.

She added the goats are smart enough to detect trees that have been treated or dyed, meaning donors don’t need to worry when dropping off their trees.

Kerchak said the best time to drop off those trees, ideally, is on the weekends when their front gates are open, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

She said to look for the growing stack of trees near the barn.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca