# Anyone had trouble with "wild carrot"?



## NWgoats (Jul 17, 2008)

Have any of you tasted a change in the milk when your goats eat
"wild carrot", Queen Anne's Lace plants? My girls' milk tastes awful!
And the only change is that they have been out in the pastures
eating the flowers off the QAL plants. Prior to that, they had not
been in the pasture. And it is all three of my does, and the milk
has the same nasty flavor. 
I also found out that the seeds of these are used as a contraceptive.
So, I guess those HAVE to come out of the pasture. They seem to
have taken over this year and I don't need infertile goats!


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I thought QAL was poison, maybe it's just the roots that are? I've got it growing all over the place here and nothing will eat it, not the horses, goats, or chickens. Even the dogs, who seem to chew apart any plant that they can reach from their pen, won't touch it.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Well around here we consider them potentially poisonous, also known as False Hemlock. These do have some good medicinal properties, however like you said thay are contraceptives. Another you might have in your area is cows slip, is edible but only in small quantities--roots are not usable for internals, external only. 
Tammy


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## NWgoats (Jul 17, 2008)

Well, it must not be poisonous. But, they sure smell awful. The milk smells the same!
My girls absolutely love eating the flower heads and seeds off the plants. They don't 
eat the leaves. We didn't have them last year (they are a biennial)
and the girls had access all summer. We also hayed the field last year. Must have kept
the boogers down. 
I swear, the more I look in my pasture, the more bad stuff I find. We've got bracken fern
(which I am working on) morning glory, and now this stuff. There have been several local
farms with major infestations of tansy! Dang, I am about to just keep the girls locked up
so I know exactly what they are eating all the time!


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

What's wrong with morning glory? You mean like bindweed? 

We have perilla mint growing everywhere. I don't know how I could ever get rid of it all. Mostly the goats leave it alone.


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## NWgoats (Jul 17, 2008)

I don't think morning glory is bad for the goats, but it sure chokes out any good
grass/pasture that I might have. The goats don't really eat it either.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Here's a short blurb on it. The leaves are poisonous but you can eat the root.

People can eat the large taproot, which of course, is a carrot. The leaves of the plant, though, are toxic, and may irritate the skin.


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## CrookedCottage (May 6, 2009)

In the NW we also have water hemlock which looks a lot like wild carrot. In fact there are four plants that all resemble each other very closely and all grow in the NW and one of them is deadly (hemlock) the others are just a nuisance. I have one of these species (can't tell which it is) on my property and I pull it. Its a huge pain but over time I think its worth it. You don't need your milk ruined or sick goats, and if you leave it and the goats leave it, its going to take over.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

NWgoats said:


> I don't think morning glory is bad for the goats, but it sure chokes out any good
> grass/pasture that I might have. The goats don't really eat it either.


Oh ok. Because my goats will eat it. I don't worry much about "weeds" my goat's will eat . Like spiny amaranth is a weed, but I don't worry about it too much, they eat it and it's high protein.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Looking on kinne.net Poisonous Plant List they are both on there, wild carrot low toxicity (leaves), wild morning glory--bindweed--low toxicity (all), also found lambsquarter high toxicity (oils from seed). This last one I am now worried about --very abundant on my property. They also call it Wormseed. And the goats field is covered. Guess what I'm doing today.
Tammy


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

The seeds of domestic Morning Glory, not sure about the wild strain, is a hallucogen. I have it growing all over my yard, climbing on the goat barn and my back porch. The goats never bother anypart of the plant.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

We have water hemlock (and the regular kind, too) here in KS. We had some growing in our prairie grass field. DH went out with gloves on and got it out before we cut the hay. Hopefully, it doesn't come back.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 27, 2007)

We have Hemlock everywhere. My goats actually lightly browse on it at certain times of the year. They have everything out there to choose from, so I do not worry about them eating too much. They have lightly browsed on it for years.


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