Hawthorn bundles

I posted earlier this week about the need to avoid putting hawthorn branches on the ground of the goat paddock to avoid the udders of Pinkie, our new milking goat, being scratched. The plan was to tie the hawthorn hedge trimmings given to us most days by neighbouring allotment holders into bundles and hang them from the fence for the goats to browse. I tried this out yesterday and it worked. 5 bundles were hung up, one of them in the photo above. An hour or so later it was stripped bare of leaves:



The goats continue to be fed branches from the many ash trees around the site. This seems to be a favourite with them. Last night Pinkie's milk yield went up again, this time to 2.15 litres. I wonder if the large quantity of fresh tree leaves in her diet is boosting her production.