Christmas trees feed hungry goats

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(ABC 6 News) – It might be easiest to throw your old Christmas tree in the garbage, or recycle it through county programs, but one local farmer is asking folks to consider feeding some hungry goats.

Ann Maxfield’s goats travel around southeast Minnesota and eat noxious weeds. It’s a program called ‘Goats on the Go’.

She started feeding used real Christmas trees to her goats last year.

The goats’ regular diet is hay, but it’s the holiday season, and we all deserve some cheat days.

“Now, what the Christmas trees will serve, is as a treat. And they do like it. They will munch and munch and munch until it just becomes nothing more than a stick,” Maxfield said. “There’s a greater world than just that tree in the living room, and it all benefits the greater community: the farming community, the city community.”

Maxfield says the trees are also healthy for the goats because they act as a natural de-wormer.

She asks people to make sure their trees are free of all decorations before bringing them, and she encourages parents to bring their kids along to meet the furry, four-legged Christmas tree disposers.

If you’d like to drop your real Christmas tree off at the goat farm, contact Ann Maxfield at 507-440-0071 or Gus Maxfield at 507-438-1154.