Nosy Nellie

Saturday morning I was checking out the rows of sweet corn that I have planted in the garden.  Other than needing to be weeded, it seems to be fairly healthy at this point.  The couple of rows of sweet corn that I planted earlier is starting to tassel.  I walked through the rows of the corn planted later to take a closer look...

Sweet Corn

Something has eaten the very top out of this corn stalk!  What could it be?  If you notice in the picture below, this row is right up against the fence.  Well I caught the culprit red-handed... errr red-hooved.  Nellie, our Nubian dairy goat puts her front legs up on the fence and cranes her neck up and over and ate the top out of the corn.

Goats are different from cows and other livestock.  They are browsers.  Browsers feed on leaves of high growing trees and shrubs.  They like to climb and eat the leaves off of low leaning branches.  As I learned, they like to eat the tops of sweet corn, too.  I'll have to remedy that.


Who's been eating the sweet corn?

I had an old section of hog wire rolled up on top of the small barn that ought to do the trick.  This is not a pretty fix, but I'm not aiming for aesthetics - strictly functionality, here.  I got some staples and extended the fence higher so that the sweet corn would be safe from nosy goats.  We'll see if it is successful.  I'll probably have to do this on the west side as well this weekend.

Extending the height of the fence by 3 feet

I figure Nellie is trying to tell me something, though, about a job I've been putting off.  There is plenty of browsing material on the south side of the fence.  The perimeter fence is protected by a strand of electric fence so the animals all respect it and don't lean over that fence or they'll get popped.  All it takes is one shock and they steer clear.  Can you see all the woody shrubs and plants below?  I got Russ' machete and my gloves and set to work chopping and throwing the limbs, leaves and plants over the fence.


Before Photo

 You can see how I've made a dent in the jungle that was encroaching on the property line fence.


After photo

You can also see how the cows, chickens and goat are very happy with all the green stuff I threw over the fence for them to nibble on.

Thanks Kyle, I'll take it easy on your corn for a while now.

The animals stayed all morning long in the shade, eating contentedly.


Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch?

In the afternoon, I mowed against the fence row.  Here is the finished product.  It looks a lot better and will keep shrubs and vines from over-taking the fence.  It may also discourage critters such as possums from coming into the pasture and wreaking havoc on the chickens. 

Fence line all cleaned up

This was something I had been meaning to do for a while.  Nellie just was reminding me.  Thanks Nellie, I guess.