# wild cherry trees



## kandmcockrell (Oct 10, 2008)

I have read that wild cherry trees are poisonous to live stock. Does that include goats? I thought goats could eat almost anything.


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## Chaty (Apr 4, 2008)

Yes they are and there are other types of leaves and trees and plants that they cant eat ...not sure wehre you look but there is a site that will tell you.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Wild cherry is dangerous if...

It is the only thing they have to eat.
It's wilted.


If goats are on browse and they happen to eat a few leaves they will be fine. But don't put the goats in a Cherry Forest for instance.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Mine eat wild cherry leaves every chance they get...Re-read post #3...Topside


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

http://fiascofarm.com/goats/poisonousplants.htm


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## delphinium (Feb 4, 2006)

The harm comes when the leaves are wilting, they develop prussic acid which is cyanide, I believe.


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## waterpossum (Apr 19, 2009)

i have a few wild cherry trees in my yard that the goats like to chew on every now and then when they decide to get out of the pasture but its never bothered them for the same reason as above...they dont gorge themselves on anything its jut not in their nature. they like to browse around and eat a little of this and a little of that and oh those flowers there sure taste sweet you wont mind me having a few of those now would you?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

What really matters is how much other roughage they get in their diet. A handful of wilted cherry leaves can kill a kid, calf, or lamb because they don't get enough other roughage in their diet to dilute the acids in the cherry leaves (and other leaves as well, such as oak and peach trees.). Many calves die this way in the Northeastern US each year. A full grown goat, cow or sheep can handle a lot more of the leaves, not solely due to their size, but due to the larger amount of roughage they take in every day.
We make it a habit to remove such trees from the perimiter of our pastures simply because it's better to be safe than sorry.


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## RosewoodfarmVA (Oct 5, 2005)

Many plants are poisonous in large doses, few in small doses. As long as they have other forage available they will consume enough to taste it but not enough to die from it. We have cherry, sumac, nightshade, pokeberry, etc in our wooded pastures and never had any problems. They will clean up those plants just as much as the 'healthy' plants, with no bad effects. As long as you don't feed them 100% poisonous plants your goats will be fine.


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## Janis Sauncy (Apr 11, 2006)

Dang.

I just had my kid cut down a wild cherry. I wish I had done more research before making that decision.

Janis


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