wild cherry

[gwithrow]

we would like to bush hog our pasture areas following the cows on their rotation, however in some areas there are small wild cherries...how long do we need to wait to put the cows back on these field areas after cutting? we are going to just cut the weed tops and seed heads off the grasses, but there will be some cherry leaves chopped up in the process...our problem is that we have too much grass right now and not enough cows even in our smaller divided pasture areas.....we need to encourage grass growth and nip the weed seeds off....but we do not want to poison our calves and cows...

[genebo]

I guess you've heard that wilted cherry leaves are toxic to cattle.

Actually, all trees of the malus family, including cherries, pears and apples, have cyanide in the leaves. Wild black cherry trees are the ones most likely to be found in your pasture.

The amount of cyanide in the leaves is concentrated when the leaf is wilted, or dried. If your cattle were allowed free access to a lot of these leaves, it could kill them. Even the bark is toxic.

The key is the amount. A few leaves scattered here and there may not be a problem at all. They would serve as a mild laxative, maybe be a good wormer. A larger dose is what you want to avoid.

Only you can judge how many leaves they might get by bush hogging the land. If it's a lot, then the pasture won't be safe for cattle until the leaves have rotted so much that the cows won't eat them.

If you think they're a threat, then before bush hogging them, I'd give them a dose of 2,4-D, so they wouldn't grow back.

Remember, the cherry leaves don't have less cyanide in them when they are green. They're a threat even when they're green.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[Welshmom]

I am not recommending you feed cherry leaves to your cows...
however, last year we had some trees cleared and the guy doing it dragged the trees into our pasture. There was a pretty good sized cherry tree in there, about 30 ft. tall. My cows ate the leaves off of it and I never even noticed a blip on the screen for them.

[agmantoo]

gwithrow

Can you rig the bush hog to where you can block the discharge opening? If so do that. The bush hog will then grind/chop the cherry sprouts to where they will rapidly decompose and where the residue is co-mingled with the other clippings thus diluting the cherry portion. Fill the animals with clean forage and they should be good to go when exposed to the cherry waste.

[blaineiac]

I thought that green or dried leaves are ok. It is during the 3 day "wilting" period that there is a build up of salicylic acid which is toxic. I lost 6 goat kids a few years back when a storm toppled a black cherry into another tree and then a few days later it fell into the pasture. My goats could handle the green leaves but these were at the wrong time of wilt.

[gwithrow]

where possible, I cut the sprouts off, treat the cut root portion with crossbow, and bag the leaves and remove from the field altogether....and now we are top clipping areas of grass and weed seed heads following the cows...they will not be back on the same field for another 6 weeks....I think we are ok, so far....like many, we have a lot of wild cherry out here....so this will be a slow eradication process....but I want to be very careful not to purposely leave dying or wilting leaves where the cows are or in their 'next' area.....is the six week time frame enough if there are some chopped leaves left behind?....I did think that if they were chopped up really well they would decompose and be gone....there is a LOT of grass and other forage for these girls...they shouldn't be too interested in cherry...