Will cows eat.......

[mamato3]

Tomato plants, cucumber plants or zucchini plants? My mom is trying to make use of every bit of her yard and there is a great area that gets all day sun along the fence. She thought she could tie up her plants to the fence and not have to worry about getting something built for her plants. But we have dealt with accidental poisoning from plants before so since tomato vines are dangers were taking all precocious before planting. I tried to research info on it but could not find info so if anyone out there has any please let me know thanks.

[topside1]

A starving cow might....As we know cows are grass eaters. They love corn stalks because corn is in the grass family....Enjoy your summer.

[cathleenc]

tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes are most likely poisonous plants (the plant material is probably poisonous - the ripened fruit should not be) to cows - they are part of the nightshade family and certainly toxic to smaller mammals, like rabbits. A cow is big enough that the toxicity might be much less but still - might want to double check before letting the cow eat the leaves/stems.

[godsgapeach]

My garden borders the fence for the cows. They've never messed with any of the plants you've mentioned. If they felt so inclined, they could have stuck their heads through and eaten any of them, but didn't. However, the plants weren't attached to the fence.

They have eaten a few pea plants in the past. And they also got a taste for okra plants because I'd sprinkled the okra with dried molasses to repel the fire ants that were getting juice from the blossoms. Haven't done the molasses thing in years, but the okra plants nearest the fence always look like they've been to a bad barber.

[kmorisett]

Are pepper and tomato plants toxic to chickens too? I fed pepper plants to my chickens last year at the end of the season, and they loved them. They didn't care for the tomato plants at all though.

Kim

[francismilker]

You can make good use out of all your garden's spent vegetable plants and vines by running them through a chipper/shredder and then laying them out on some sheetiron to sun-bake dry. I know it sounds like a lot of work but 15 minutes of grinding and spreading out to dry might replace a bag of laying pellets for a week.

[gone-a-milkin]

Well, I have had cows eat my pumpkins before. They didn't touch them until they turned orange.

[mamato3]

ok maybe we will do a trial this year with a few plants if they start eating it we can rip them out so they dont get sick

[francismilker]

I wouldn't worry about it. I may be an absolute greenhorn at cattle for saying this, but in my neck of the woods there's not anything that I've heard you have to keep cows away from except a highway, the railroad tracks, and a horse that likes chasin' cows. Otherwise, if you keep free choice minerals and water in front of them, worm them a couple of times per year, and vaccinate in the Spring, you're good to go. I've never heard of anyone around this part of the world scouting their pastures to see if there are any "poisonous" plants available to cows.

By the way, my family garden borders a five-wire fence and my cucumbers and tomatoes climb it as well. I've got horses, donkeys, sheep, and cows in the pasture and have never yet had one try to mess with any of it. (with the exception of the cows eating ripe cucumbers in the fall)