browse ? for cattle

[spruceglen]

what kind of trees are best? any idea can cows get too much? what is the nutritional value? I see a lot about it for deer but not much info regarding cows.

[Jennifer L.]

Cows don't browse. They are grass eaters. The closest I've ever seen to browsing is my neighbor's herd of Angus eating bulrushes. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. My Holsteins never, ever ate a bulrush.

[kycrawler]

I had a herd of corriente and Angus cross cows that loved maple and poplar leaves they would eat the leaves off freshly downed trees before they would eat grass or good hay

[agmantoo]

High intensity managed grazing along with mob grazing will IMO alter over time the spectrum of plants that a herd will consume. My herd on the female side is closed, I only introduce new bulls. Slowly, but observably, I have seen the calves learn from the cows that certain weeds and various other plants are palatable. The wooded areas where the cows take cover from the sun the lower limbs have been eaten and the ground plants such a honeysuckle and poison oak have disappeared. Virginia creeper in the paddocks has lessened along with various trees sprouts that used to volunteer. I still see fennel and cedars along with blackberry so I have ruled out that trampling as a major cause of the reduction of the items mentioned above. A couple of years ago there was a lady on the extension office programs that stated she could train cattle to eat certain weeds. I have also read that what calves eat when they are young is what they will eat when mature if given the opportunity and selection choice.

[Mupwi]

my dexters like eating leaves from trees aswell they love the fig tree leaves alas some other trees in the pasture not sure of there names off hand they have plenty of grass and other plants so its not like they are only doing it because they are starving they seem to like difrent plants at difrnt times of the day aswell I guess I wouldn’t like to have to eat the same thing for breakfast lunch and dinner. one thing they seem to enjoy is blackjacks with im happy about as i dont have nearly as many on my pants now after walking through the pasture

[COWS]

Cows will eat wild cherry leaves. The danger is that wilted wild cherry leaves are poisonous. Suppose a limb is blown off a tree and the cows don't find it until the leaves are wilted, the if they eat the leaves they may die. As long as the tree is growing the leaves are all right for the cows to eat. If they find a blown down branch immediately after it falls, they can safely eat it.
They also like kudzu if that helps anyone, LOL.

COWS

[Awnry Abe]

Osage orange/hedge. And elm. Our cows pick them clean. I think it makes more sense to manage for grass harvesting than leaf, though.

[kycrawler]

Sure does Abe plus it takes some really leggy cows to browse the top 3\4 of those trees

[DEKE01]

I'm trying to grow willow as fodder for those times of year when my grass growth slows.

http://www.poplarandwillow.org.nz/fi...-as-fodder.pdf

The planting of palatable trees for fodder should form part
of a farm drought resilience plan. In a drought often the
only sight of green on parched farms is trees, particularly
poplars and willows...The feed value of poplar and willows leaves is 65-70%
dry matter digestibility, about the same as lucerne hay.
A crude protein level of 15% is well above that required
for livestock maintenance. ...