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Cedar turns up in pastures across the country, and goat owners notice it fast. The goats strip the bark, chew the low branches, and keep coming back.
What follows is the practical side. You’ll get species identification, real limits on how much a goat should eat, and how a herd clears cedar.
Can goats eat cedar trees?
Goats can eat cedar trees, and most herds do it by choice. Goats are browsing animals rather than grazers, and the rumen handles woody plants and shrubs better than plain grass.
That browsing habit follows a clear order. The South Dakota Grassland Coalition found that goats eat broadleaved trees and shrubs first, then forbs and grass. Cedar bark comes last, stripped from trunks and branches.
So cedar is rarely a goat’s first pick. But it becomes a bigger share of the diet once preferred browse runs low, which matters in an overgrazed pasture.
Not every cedar is the same tree
Put simply: most pasture cedar is juniper and safe. The Thuja species need limits.
The word cedar covers several unrelated species, and the difference changes the safety answer. Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is the tree most North American goat owners actually have, and it is a juniper rather than a true cedar.
True cedars belong to the Cedrus genus and grow mainly in the Mediterranean. You’ll almost never find one in a working pasture.
Juniper browse has a long record as goat feed.
| Tree | Botanical name | Where it grows | Browse safety |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Red Cedar | Juniperus virginiana | Eastern and central US | Safe, common browse |
| Ashe juniper (mountain cedar) | Juniperus ashei | Central Texas, Oklahoma | Safe, browsed heavily |
| Rocky Mountain juniper | Juniperus scopulorum | Western US | Safe, similar to red cedar |
| Northern white cedar | Thuja occidentalis | Northeast US, hedges | Limit, contains thujone |
| Western red cedar | Thuja plicata | Pacific Northwest | Limit, contains thujone |
| True cedar | Cedrus species | Ornamental only | Rare in pasture |
Texas changes the answer slightly. The cedar on most central Texas ground is Ashe juniper, which ranchers call mountain cedar. Goats browse it hard enough that ranchers use them to hold it back.
Here’s the exception: the Thuja species. Northern white cedar is sold in nurseries as arborvitae, and both it and western red cedar carry thujone in the foliage.
A hedge of arborvitae therefore deserves a fence more than a stand of red cedar. Owners commonly limit how much the herd can reach.
Cedar is rarely the tree to worry about anyway. Cherry, yew, and chinaberry are the ones that cause real poisonings, along with the sugar gum among the eucalypts.
The Merck Veterinary Manual sorts the worst plants by cyanogenic glycosides and grayanotoxins rather than by species name. Learning those two compound groups covers more ground than memorizing a list.
Is cedar a natural dewormer for goats?
Partly true. Cedar browse can lower worm egg counts, but it replaces nothing.
Cedar has a reputation as a natural dewormer, and there is something real behind it. Evergreen browse is often reported to lower worm egg counts. So owners treat it as a small aid to parasite control, much like pine needles.
Tannins are the compound people point to. Those tannins appear to interfere with internal parasites in the gut.
There is a second reason browse helps, and it has nothing to do with chemistry. Worm larvae crawl only a few inches up wet grass, so a goat feeding at head height swallows far fewer of them.
Which worm is involved makes that height difference matter. Haemonchus contortus, the barber pole worm, kills more goats than any other single cause.
It feeds on blood in the abomasum, so it causes anemia rather than the scouring most owners watch for. A goat can carry a heavy load and still pass normal manure.
Pale eyelids therefore tell you more than manure does. FAMACHA scoring compares eyelid color against a printed card, and it catches anemia while the goat is still treatable.
But there’s a catch. Cedar is not a substitute for a real parasite program, and no one should skip fecal egg counts because the herd browses evergreens.
How much cedar can a goat eat?
A small share of the daily ration. Hay, pasture, and minerals make up the rest.
Treat cedar as part of a mixed diet, never as the diet itself. Hay stays the base of the ration, and cedar is browse the goats pick up on their own.
Farm Progress reports that most goats can take up to 20 percent of their diet as foliage and bark from cedar and juniper. That leaves the other 80 percent for hay, pasture, and minerals.
Free-choice browsing in a pasture with other forage tends to self-regulate. The trouble starts when cedar is the only thing left, or when penned goats get cut cedar and nothing else.
Goats new to cedar should come to it gradually. A rumen takes about two weeks to adjust to any new feed, and a sudden large helping is what upsets it.
What this means for you: watch for loose manure, a dropped appetite, or a goat that goes off feed. Those signs point to too much of any single browse, cedar included.
Feeding cut cedar branches
Cut cedar is a different situation from a standing tree. A goat browsing a live cedar takes what it can reach and then moves on.
A pile of fresh branches is nothing like that. It sits at head height with nothing to interrupt the goat, and that is where they overeat.
The self-regulation that works in an open pasture depends on the goat having to work for each bite. Remove the work and you remove the limit.
Offer cut branches in small amounts alongside hay, never as the only thing in the pen. A few branches for a small herd is closer to a treat than a meal.
Trimmings from an arborvitae hedge should not go in the pen at all. Those clippings put a concentrated dose of thujone in front of goats that have no reason to stop.
What to do if a goat eats too much cedar
Pull the cedar, offer grass hay and water, then watch closely. Bloat or a stopped cud means call a vet.
Most cedar overeating ends with nothing worse than a sour stomach. Watch for loose manure, a tight left side, and a goat standing apart from the herd.
- Remove the cedar. Move the goat off the stand, or clear cut branches out of the pen.
- Give free-choice grass hay and clean water. Plain hay restarts a stalled rumen better than grain does.
- Check the cud. A goat that stops chewing for a day needs a vet, as does one that bloats.
- Call sooner for a pregnant doe. Abortion risk is what separates her case from a wether nibbling red cedar.
Cedar and pregnant does
Limit it late in pregnancy. A few bites from pasture are fine, but a felled tree is not.
Pregnant does are the one group that needs real limits. Several evergreen species contain compounds linked to abortion in livestock, so many owners cut back cedar access late in pregnancy.
The precaution is about volume, not a total ban.
Species identification matters more than any blanket rule. The same caution applies to other pasture plants that are toxic to goats.
Dairy does, kids, and cedar browse
With lactating does, the question changes. Strong aromatic browse can carry into milk, and cedar is about as aromatic as pasture browse gets.
Most owners never taste a difference at normal browsing levels. A doe that spent an afternoon stripping a felled cedar is the one worth milking separately for a day.
Kids handle cedar better than owners expect. A kid old enough to browse takes small bites and wanders off, which is the same habit that keeps adults safe.
What kids need first is a working rumen. Milk and starter feed come well before browse matters, and a kid under about three weeks gets nothing useful from cedar.
Using goats to clear cedar from pasture
Goats do control cedar, but slowly. Stripping every green part is what kills a tree.
Encroaching cedar is a genuine problem on grassland, and goats are one of the tools that work. Eastern Red Cedar spread across the Great Plains after fire suppression and shelter belt planting removed the checks on it.
Wildfire and grazing ungulates once kept the prairie clear of woody plants. Both of those pressures faded, and cedar seedlings spread into the grass.
Goats bring one of those pressures back.
Here’s the deal: a USDA SARE grazing project reported that cedar trees do not regrow once all the green is removed.
That means full defoliation kills the tree instead of trimming it. Getting there takes planning, though.
Results vary more than the theory suggests. The same project put 6 goats on 33 acres holding thousands of cedar seedlings, and reported that no trees were completely eaten.
The goats nibbled widely instead of clearing one patch. Concentrating a herd on a small block is the hard part, and that is what the fencing solves.
Portable electric fence raises grazing pressure on a small block of trees. Cattle can follow behind to graze the pasture grasses and build healthier soil.
SDSU field and pen trials also found goats ate more needles on smaller trees. Seedlings and young cedar are the realistic target, not mature trunks.
Prescribed fire and mechanical shearing still handle established stands better. Goats work best afterward, browsing the regrowth before it gets established.
Clearing every cedar is rarely the goal anyway. A thick stand works as a windbreak, and goats use one for shelter in winter and shade in summer.
Most graziers keep the shelter belt and clear the seedlings spreading out from it. Those seedlings are what turn open grassland into cedar thicket.
Will goats eat cedar in winter?
Yes, and more than in summer. Cedar stays green when the rest of the pasture is dormant.
Winter is when cedar takes up more of a goat’s diet. Evergreen foliage stays green while the pasture goes dormant, leaving cedar as one of the few living options.
Goats treat other evergreens the same way. A stand of pine trees gets stripped just as fast once the cold sets in.
The short version? That seasonal shift is normal and usually harmless. What you don’t want is a winter pasture heavy in cedar and short on hay.
Winter cedar is also lower quality than it looks. Green foliage in January is still woody browse, not the protein a doe in late gestation needs.
So hay matters more in winter, not less. Keep good hay in front of them through the cold months, and cedar stays browse instead of turning into the main feed.
Final Thoughts
Cedar is safe browse for most goats, and a herd picking at a cedar stand is doing something normal. Identify your species, keep hay available, and limit access for does in late pregnancy.
And if cedar is spreading through your pasture, goats are a real part of the answer. Just plan the grazing rather than leaving it to the herd.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cedar and other evergreen browse have been reported to lower worm egg counts in goats, and tannins in the foliage are the likely reason. Treat it as a small help, not a replacement. Keep running fecal egg counts and stay on your normal parasite program.
Cherry, chinaberry, oak in large amounts, black walnut, and yew are the trees goat owners watch most. Yew is the most dangerous, since a small amount can kill a goat. Eastern Red Cedar is not on that list and is safe browse in normal amounts.
Rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel, milkweed, nightshade, and wilted cherry leaves are among the worst. Many cause trouble in small amounts, so identify anything unfamiliar growing in your pasture before your goats find it first.
Internal parasites, especially the barber pole worm, kill more goats than anything else. Heavy worm loads cause anemia and weight loss and often go unnoticed until the goat is already weak. Regular fecal testing and rotational grazing are the main defenses.
