What do people know about willow?
We've a fair bit growing around and about the place but none in the farmed areas which stock can access for browse. So I cut a bit the other week to try on the sheep and it was all gone within the hour. So assuming it was good for them (does anyone know what the nutrient profile of willow is?) and with silage gathered in I've started thinking how do we provide a bit more diversity in the winter ration when the opportunity for browsing the hedges, edges and forces to top up micronutrients disappears over winter. So was going to cut alot of the willow and dry it as tree hay and supplement the winter grazing and silage with it.
However will be relatively small amounts so just wondering whether this is at all worthwhile or a complete time waster. A better plan I imagine would be to have the willow in our hedges for stock to access themselves and have started planting some saplings to that effect.
I am hoping this will also help inform our agroforestry planting plan when EFS opens again.