Holiday trees repurposed as goat food
MIDDLESEX TWP — JoAnn Echtler is coming for your holiday trees.
“I should get a Grinch costume. We are just stealing people’s Christmas trees,” said the Cranberry Township Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Realtor.
It’s true that on Jan. 10 Echtler and her husband, Bryan DeHart, will be on the road in a dump truck towing a trailer, snatching up pine trees from the roadside.
But it’s not because they hate Christmas and their hearts are two sizes too small.
It’s their third annual “Christmas tree roundup,” and the pine trees will go to feed Echtler’s herd of fainting goats.
Echtler owns Bacon Acres, a 20-acre farm at 160 McFann Road in Middlesex Township. And on that farm she has four goats who are half-siblings: the boy, Titan, and the girls, Sugar, Layla and Pip.
The goats like nothing better than to strip off the needles of nearly dead Christmas trees as a snack.
And while fainting goats sound cuddly and cute, Echtler said Titan and his half-sisters tip the scales at 130 to 150 pounds each, and they can pack away a lot of pine needles between them.
Echtler said she bought the farm 10 years ago. The name came from her long-held dream of raising pigs.
“I always wanted to have a farm with pigs until our oldest son got a pig. It ruined the dream,” she said. “They are very determined and very strong. They are hard to wrangle.”
“I decided to invest in fainting goats,” she said. “I always wanted fainting goats and chickens. We always had an interest and five years ago we built a barn, and we were able to get the animals.”
“I really just heard good things about their temperaments,” said Echtler about her goats. “They are very docile, very friendly goats ... they are a novelty, because it’s a cool thing.
“They are very much like dogs. I take them for walks through the forest with no leashes. They follow me like dogs,” she said.
Echtler said her herd is what are called myotonic goats.
“It’s a genetic mutation. Whenever they are frightened or startled, their nervous system causes them to seize up, and they either lose their balance and fall over or they become very very stiff, ” she said. “They don’t lose consciousness. It’s more of a paralysis.”
When they aren’t frozen stiff, the goats have a healthy appetite and like to eat the needles off of pine trees.
Echtler’s Christmas tree roundup tradition began in 2020.
“We have an Instagram account for Bacon Acres, and someone saw the account and messaged me, “Would you like my tree after Christmas?’
“I told my assistant, (Kelsey Smith), ‘Let’s pick up this tree’ and we fed it to the goats,” she said.
“They just strip the tree of the needles. Pine needles are anti-internal parasites. Goats are very subject to having parasites. So, it’s for their gut health as well as roughage,” Echtler said.
Melanie Barkley, extension educator for the Penn State extension office in Bedford County, agreed.
“The goats apparently like the taste, and it’s not just to supplement their diet,” said Barkley.
“Goats are very susceptible to internal parasites When they eat the pine needles it helps impact the life cycle of these parasites and keeps the goats healthy.”
Barkley added goats are ruminants with a four-chambered stomach which contains a protozoa that is adept at breaking down the cellulose the animal consumes.
Perhaps that’s why Echtler’s four goats can go through a tree a day. So it’s good that last year Echtler and her husband collected 54 pine trees last year, enough to last the goats through March.
Those wishing to register to donate their used trees to the goats’ lunch can search Joann Echtler on Facebook or @joannechtler on Instagram. The pinned post on Facebook and the bio field in Instagram have the link to the online form. Those interested in having their tree snatched up can also email her at jechtler@tprsold.com.
Trees that have been sprayed with chemicals are not suitable for goat food, and Echtler asks that the tree be stripped of all ornaments and tinsel.
Then, on Jan. 10, Echtler and her husband will be around to addresses on their list to spirit the conifers off to their herd of hungry goats.
