# cattle & young trees?



## ACountryMomma (Aug 10, 2008)

I've raised goats for a few years & as they browse and graze they have to be kept away from all young trees on our property. 

Now my husband is VERY interested in raising some bucket calves BUT he has planted lots of trees in all the area of our property that isn't currently being used by goats. Part of the property is already fenced on 3 sides and could easily be closed off for a few calves - but would they destroy the trees? They are Elderberry and Crabapple and are about 4-5 years old - the crabapples are small - under 4 feet, the elderberry are taller 6' or more. 

I would love to hear opinions & experiences. I just wondered if, since cattle seem to be just grazers, they would even mess with the little trees.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

If it's tasty, a cow will eat it. They're not as voracious as goats, but I've seen my girls pulling the occasional leaf off a tree. Not for shortage of hay in the manger, either! LOL


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## SusyTX (Sep 9, 2008)

We have a smallish herd of Dexters (15 and growing), and have planted roughly 30 fruit trees and three shade trees, with many more plantings of both planned. We've planted throughout our acreage, not in a traditional orchard pattern, and are still working through some of the problems you may face. 

We originally thought deer might be our biggest problem, so we drove three t-posts around the each fruit tree and wrapped a length of field fence around each (roughly 10 ft long, but should be even more). So far we've only 'almost' lost one to deer (chewed off all branches, but it came back). The cattle, though, seem to like to scratch on the posts (even when winter lice are not a problem), so periodically we have to reset the t-posts and 'rebend' the fencing...not much of a problem, really. We did plant three shade trees, about 10 ft tall, without doing the fencing wrap...the cattle still rubbed their heads on the trees, which kinda bent them a bit, and did chew the lowest leaves off...we went ahead and staked them with one t-post, and will probably wrap them with fencing like we did with the fruit trees. Right now the cattle are in a different pasture so the trees are safe, for now!

One thing I did hear is that cattle can choke on whole apples, so when our apple trees are bearing fruit we'll probably have to either enlarge the fencing or, more likely, keep them away from the apple trees until they've done fruiting. I'd guess that could be a problem, too, with nectarines, peaches, and plums. We have huge pecan trees now, and although the cattle stay under them for shade, I haven't noticed them eating the pecans. I have heard, though, that acorn poisoning can be a problem, but we don't have any oaks anywhere near the cattle. Ours do like to eat the young dewberry plants that crop up in the pasture, but don't seem to bother the wild blackberry bushes much. Even still, we'll be planting our grapes, berries, and other small fruit in our 'house garden' and away from temptation. 

Hope this helps!!!


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## Gregg Alexander (Feb 18, 2007)

Never had a real problem with cattle eating tree buds, leaves ect if you give them enough pasture to graze.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

My beef herd has plenty to eat. The wooded area they have access to has every leaf eaten as high as the cattle can reach. The woods appear as if a landscaping crew trimmed the under storage. Cattle will kill ever tree they can access that they can reach the top of. Genebo I believe has had a few pics on this forum that you can see where the cattle cleaned the under neath of the woods


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## RosewoodfarmVA (Oct 5, 2005)

Go to my dad's blog www.daveblackonline.com/blog.htm and scroll down a ways he has pics of our fields taken a few weeks ago showing clearly the treeline with all leaves and small trees gone from 6 ft down. They will eat the leaves off anything they can reach and will ride down a sapling, same as a goat will, though a 1000lb cow can ride down 2" diameter trees if they want to, and not even if they're starving, they like new growth and will ride down a tree just to pick the fresh end off of it.


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## anvoj (Feb 1, 2010)

I think I read somewhere that elderberry is considered poisonous to cattle. You might want to check into that. 
I use old cement reinforcing mesh that's no good for cement anymore (seem to always have some laying around), tie it to a t-post or 2. Lasts a good while and keeps the deer off. Don't know how it would hold up as a cattle scratching post though.


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