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Goats pre"fir" Christmas trees

Goats pre"fir" Christmas trees

Goats will eat old Christmas trees for digestive system health.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com, Photo by chris robert on Unsplash 

Now that holiday season has come and gone for most of us—comes the tiresome job of having to dispose of the ol’ Christmas tree.

But wait! Why not feed it to your goat? Goats, sheep, pigs and even chickens.

Feed’em if you got’em.  

As an intriguing way to upcycle and to provide a treat for your goat and other farm animals, the yule tree provides them with a tasty treat and digestive health with some fibre intake.

The old trees, with their drier falling needles provides a bit of acidity for the creatures—helps to clean out the system.

The goats, especially, will eat the needles, bark and twigs. Of course, the creatures won’t eat the entire tree, but with what’s left over—the wood—is used by some farmers to heat their barn. Waste not, want not.

 


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In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Kwangwook Kim, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, discusses the use of non-nutritive sweeteners in nursery pig diets. He explains how sucralose and neotame influence feed intake, gut health, metabolism, and the frequency of diarrhea compared to antibiotics. The conversation highlights mechanisms beyond palatability, including hormone signaling and nutrient transport. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Receptors responsible for sweet taste are present not only in the mouth but also along the intestinal tract.”

Meet the guest: Dr. Kwangwook Kim / kwangwook-kim is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, specializing in swine nutrition and feed additives under disease challenge models. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of California, Davis, where he focused on intestinal health and metabolic responses in pigs. His research evaluates alternatives to antibiotics, targeting gut health and performance in nursery pigs.