Shrubs and trees that cattle eat

[hendrebc]

Not sure im clever enough to make a wooden submarine and get it to sink but i likenthe clog idea. With this weather it would make great wellies!

 

[Kevtherev]

Not sure im clever enough to make a wooden submarine and get it to sink but i likenthe clog idea. With this weather it would make great wellies!

Not me neither I doubt it would be a sunkmarine[emoji23]

 

[Danllan]

Ours get branches off a corkscrew willow but only seem to go for the leaves. I believe aspirin was made from the bark, I've often wondered if there is an unpleasant taste to it. I have in the past cut branches if I've had an unwell animal but no idea if it helped.

I'm surprised animals would eat holly - seems painful! But the sheep often go for creeping thistle and nettle tops, so maybe their mouths are tough inside.

Seems a great idea this to vary the diet and maybe eek out the grass.

Can't comment on the thistles, but just like the acacias in Africa, our holly becomes less prickly the higher you get. It is a waste of a tree's resources making thorns / spines / pricks unnecessarily, so they don't do it once their branches are out of the highest browsing range in their ecosystem. (This is why introduced tree climbing goats can have a devastating, defoliating effect)

 

[bluebell]

ive got a couple of areas of norway maple, a legacy of an old tree nursery, that my cattle love to eat the leaves, and in the years we had a hot dry summer id cut some of the higher branches down for them to strip the leaves and seed developing.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I've killed it with salt, I'm hoping when it 'mulches itself' then I will aim to have a heap of seedlings ready to slot in.
Hopefully the gorse will keep the stock off them until they get a couple of feet tall and then they'll be away.
They reckon tree lucerne can grow up to 10T of drymatter per ha per year, quite impressive! And definitely better than gorse

Interesting, thank you. Your post downstream, I have Leyland and Lawson here. They don't touch the Lawson at all. It grows down to the ground. The Leyland, as you say starts about 4 feet up.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Yes alder has N fixing nodules on the roots

Quite easy to see.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Quick google search yes it’s durable underwater and was used for boats and clogs!

Also the highest quality charcoal used for gunpowder.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We have a lovely native tree here named Kowhai, which stock love.
It is also a legume, with beautiful golden flowers at this time of year.
(Kowhai is the Maori word for yellow)
Great for birds and bees and stock (Tui in this one)

the seed is that hard you have to boil it to get it to germinate.
It can look like Kev's sheep tree if it has a lean on, have been out fly fishing and seen sheep populating horizontal branches eating the tiny little leaves.

 

[The Ruminant]

Thanks for all the suggestions and the links to other sites - some fascinating stuff. I can see a trip to both Tim Downes and Silvaspin is in order, if they’ll let me!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks for all the suggestions and the links to other sites - some fascinating stuff. I can see a trip to both Tim Downes and Silvaspin is in order, if they’ll let me!

For my input, you're most welcome!
A very interesting topic, one that isn't obvious - but many could make much better use of unproductive areas with edible plantings

 

[Kevtherev]

Cut some overhanging hedges yesterday a mix of witch elm,ash and hazel.
Cows were there straight away to eat.

 

[llamedos]

@The Ruminant just come across this https://www.agforward.eu/index.php/en/sylvopasture-systems.html you may be aware of it already.
Some quite interesting reading in the research groups links at the bottom of the page.

 

[AGN76]

Our cows eat the Buddleias!

 

[andybk]

Remember quietly dropping all the elders around the fields with dad , from the hedges in the 76 drought , thought it was never going to end .

 

[dogjon]

I've been interested in this for awhile. Did some informal palatability testing years ago. Ash was at the top followed by native willows and Poplar, The willows are supposed to have some antihelmintic properties due to their "good" tannins. We dropped Ash in late summer a couple years (firewood) after the grass had gone and the sheep were mad for them. Word of warning though. Within a few days the sheep would come to the sound of a chainsaw and had to be kept out of the field when falling and limbing big stuff.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

www.treecrops.org.nz is a link to the NZ tree crops association

 

[Whitepeak]

Very interesting and not something I'd thought much about. But thinking about it we have quite a few Sycamore and Ash on our farm and they never leaf below 2m (or I never see leaves below 2m). I also see lots of seedlings under the mature trees in spring but they soon disappear, I assume as they have been grazed.
Also I remember dad saying that years ago when there were more dairy herds in the village who walked their cows along the road, there was never any saplings growing on the grass verges as the cows grazed them out on their way past.
I wonder if any work has been done on the nutritional analysis/benefits of trees??

 

[Old Tip]

Remember reading a report a year or so ago done by some bods at Oxford Uni which said Silviagriculture (or Wood Pasture to us farm types) was the most environmentally and financials productive way of agriculture. The animals were healthier and the amount of productivity increased plus you were producing lots of different crops at the same time.

 

[Farmer Roy]

What a fascinating subject. It's certainly one I'd never considered before.

Very common with some species here ( especially acacias ) to see no growth at all below grazing height, the lower foliage is all trimmed back by cattle / sheep

 

[Farmer Roy]

http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/_blo...ble-shrubs-supply-more-reliable-carbon-flows/