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Cattle Can be Good Brush Managers
Cows can do every bit as well on brush as goats. How do I know? I have experience using both for managing vegetation. And this week Dave Pratt tells us how to figure out how much to charge for prescri
Hi Kathy,
I have seen cows do considerable damage to areas of brush when they were first introduced there. A former Ontario Min of Ag pasture specialist, Jack Kyle, advised students in my Pasture Management course to use cattle to clean out brush from an area that they want to turn into horse pasture. Deb Bennet of California, who wrote a lot about horse evolution and plants that are toxic to horses showed a photo of a horse browsing happily on a black walnut tree (which is supposed to be highly toxic), where there was plenty of grass available. I guess we should not be surprised when we come across something new!
Thanks for bringing our attention to this article. It caused me to search for more information about common ragweed. Our cattle eat it, but only seem to take the tops. The ragweed is so thick this year that I was beginning to consider brush hogging it to let more light to the grasses. After reading this http://onpasture.com/2014/04/21/is-ranchers-success-against-ragweed-really-a-win/ I’m re-thinking that thought.
We have some raw milk cows and beef and they have grass pasture with hedge rows and they complety keep the hedge rows open and because they are 100% grass fed I believe the leaves on the different varieties of trees and brush provide nutrients they don’t get from the grass and as the Vet says (once or twice a year)it’s hard to believe you feed no grain. Artifical breeding 96% first service.
In some areas this could make the difference between “just making it” and becoming profitable.