# Are persimmons poisonous to goats



## Niki Forsyth (May 4, 2017)

We have a persimmon tree and wonder if we need to chomp it down. It's in the pin with the goats.


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## Southern by choice (May 4, 2017)

http://articles.extension.org/pages/19502/goat-vegetation-oklahoma-browse

_"Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) - Goats may browse and control persimmon on some sites, but on others, it is poorly utilized."_


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## goatgurl (May 4, 2017)

I have 60 acres that my goats free range on and it has tons of persimmon trees on it.  every fall my barnyard is covered with persimmon seeds from the goat poo so I can absolutely say that my girls have no problem with them but being a stone fruit you would have to be careful of wilted leaves from them.  how big is the area the tree is in and how big is the tree itself?


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## Niki Forsyth (May 4, 2017)

@goatgurl The area is almost 1/2 acre. Umm...the trunk is about the size of a saucer plate. It is about 8-10 yrs old. Why should I worry about the wilted leaves?


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## Niki Forsyth (May 4, 2017)

Thank you for  your post @southernbychoice and @goatgurl !


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## Baymule (May 4, 2017)

They haven't hurt my sheep. We had a good fall crop of persimmons and the sheep scarfed them up. I even shook the trees and the sheep followed me from tree to tree. The dogs eat them too!


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## babsbag (May 5, 2017)

Yes, they have big seeds, but I wouldn't call them a stone fruit. My persimmons are seedless unless they are pollinated. Examples of stone fruits are peaches, nectarines, plums, lychees, mangoes, and cherries.  @Niki Forsyth ...to answer your question about stone fruits. 

_Wilting of the green leaves caused by frost, storm damage, or cutting precipitates changes to glucoside found in the leaves, changing it to hydrocyanic acid (HCN) and sugar. Those sweet, wilted leaves are more attractive to goats than fresh foliage. HCN content varies widely; but under some conditions, a few handfuls of leaves are enough to kill much larger animals such as horses or cows.


So, a cyanide poisoning should be suspected when sudden death of animals follows windstorms or an early, sharp frost. These leaves apparently lose their poison after they have become dry; it’s the limp, green or partially yellowed leaves that hold the greatest danger_

Because of this I don't feed any of my goats leaves from fruit trees.


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## ragdollcatlady (May 5, 2017)

We had 8 persimmon trees in the goat yard, they love the fruit (high in vitamin A, I understand) and they eat the leaves like crazy. We have not had any health issues with them. The goats haven't necessarily killed the trees, but a few of the trees died (something internal like a rot of some kind I think) and the drought has been hard on a couple them, but they were here 10 years ago when we moved in and a couple are still hanging in there feeding and shading our girls.


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## Niki Forsyth (May 26, 2017)

Thank you all for you replies.


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