Why do cattle dig holes in fields?

[davidroberts30]

Reseeded in spring
Cattle been in less than 24 hours

and had a salt bucket with them all summer
F*&%£@s

 

[Henarar]

Because its there
Bit like climbing a mountain

 

[Farmer Roy]

Maybe deficient in other minerals, not just salt

cattle will eat bones etc if deficient in certain minerals

 

[milkloss]

Had some odd behaviour with ours in spring. They got really wound up in an area we used to have a saw bench pit probably 50 years ago and scratched that up pretty good.

 

[JSmith]

Farmer Roy’s said it all

 

[serf]

I thought it was to dust them selves to keep flies and mites and pests off them like they do in the seringetti, unless they are physically eating the soil then would say its minerals .

 

[Jerry]

Maybe deficient in other minerals, not just salt

cattle will eat bones etc if deficient in certain minerals

Where my in Calvers are there’s an old stone quarry. I use it to feed silage as it’s nice and sheltered with a hard floor. Nit huge but one side wall is about 5 to 7m tall. There’s one spot there they love to lick the wall and over the last few years have licked out about a meter cube of material.

Always got minerals available but there must be something in that patch of wall they love.

 

[Whitepeak]

Chatting to someone at the weekend who farms on sand and his cows can dig massive holes a few feet deep! No idea why!

Ours love rubbing their heads in soil heaps, trees, freshly opened straw bales , simply for the fun of it

 

[milkloss]

I think it might be territorial too

Billy big bolloks giving it the large a couple of months back.

 

[Farmer Roy]

 

[Farmer Roy]

I have seen kangaroos eating kangaroo carcasses

 

[Kevtherev]

Always seem to do it hedge banks we call it ‘horning’.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Ours have been bolused, access to minerals and salt in buckets and they still dig holes everywhere

 

[steveR]

View attachment 1059040

Passing Rambler dealt with....?

 

[davidroberts30]

These have rolled barley with mineral In and access to salt
i havent see if they are eating it or digging it

 

[Sir loin]

Has an animal, cow or calf, died in that spot previously I have heard of that theory before.

 

[Bill dog]

Chuffing badgers have dug scrapes like that all over my reseed . Oh how cute they are !

 

[egbert]

View attachment 1059040

seen it 3-4 times here.

and further....
Our ideas of what eats what are far less flexible than the reality.
Frinstance....Reindeer in Siberia are well known to eat fish and lemmings late in the winter.

 

[davidroberts30]

Has an animal, cow or calf, died in that spot previously I have heard of that theory before.

no but the mrs suggested where the holes are and where they have holes in the grazing ground are in a fairly straight line across the fields
maybe some mineral deposit in the soil?

 

[Sir loin]

drains?

no but the mrs suggested where the holes are and where they have holes in the grazing ground are in a fairly straight line across the fields
maybe some mineral deposit in the soil?

maybe digging for water