Teaching cattle to eat weeds

[dragonmorgan]

I been lookin into tryin this with our cows but Im not sure what kinds of weeds around here would be safe to give to our cows. I live in south Alabama and we have plenty of weeds in our pastures and it would be awsome if I could teach our herd to eat them. Has anyone had success with this with their own herd? Where can I find a list of weeds in my area that would be safe for the cows to eat?

 

[Royd Wood]

buy some Galloways, then you wont have to teach your cattle to eat weeds.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

buy some Galloways, then you wont have to teach your cattle to eat weeds.

 

[animalfarm]

buy some Galloways, then you wont have to teach your cattle to eat weeds.

Ain't that the truth.

I had a severe weed problem with some 6-8 ft tall milky sapped thing with leaves like tobacco plants. They took over and shaded everything else out. I bush hogged them down before they could go to seed and the belties suddenly took a liking to the chopped up stuff. Now, they get it before it before it grows enough to be a problem. Nice clean weed free pasture; weed free because they are now edible food. They love thistle hay as well. I always give them the weediest nastiest stuff and they eat it like candy.

 

[dragonmorgan]

You would think that as weedy as our fields are our cows would eat some of them. Especially since the summer rains have been scarce and the grass aint growin too well but nope. They turn their noses up at it. Im hopin to figure out which weeds here are edible and start broadening their palettes with it. I just dont want to mess up and give them somethin thatll make them sick.

 

[animalfarm]

I worried about making them sick as well the first year they ate the as yet unidentified weed, I thought for sure there would be fertility problems or 3 eyed calves. I was hoping for 3 eyed calves as they would make a nice niche market, but all I got was fat cows. The only cows I don't let at the weeds are the Jerseys as I don't like weirdo milk.

Weed eating really is catching; I ran a few Belties in with the Angus for a summer and the Angus learned to eat them as well. To get them to start, confine them to a small area so that they have to compete for grazing and cannot be picky. Since the pasture is likely to be grazed to nubbins before they start on the weeds, pick the worst bit, turn in some pigs or chickens when the cows are finished and broadcast some seed in the late fall or spring to bring back the grass. I actually plant forbs as they are high in protein and will grow in some pretty mean soil. To get animals to eat them, good soil nutrients make for a better tasting weed so as the cows poop the area to death, next years weeds will be more palatable.

 

[dragonmorgan]

How did you figure out which weeds werent harmful to the cows?

 

[zzGypsy]

try your extension office... the missouri state university extension office has great info online on what's poisonous and what's not, and what might be (like johnsongrass) under some conditions.

if your extension office doesn't have info on line, call 'em, they often have a pastures / grazing / livestock expert you can talk to. or if you don't have that great an extension office... you can pop on line and see if the MO site has info that applies to your weeds too.

some things it pays to talk with the expert.... for instance Johnson grass... GREAT forage, cows and horses and goats and sheep LOVE it, and it's only dangerous if 1) it's been frost killed in which case it produces a poison or 2) it's had a week or so of hard dry weather (when it draws up nitrogen to dangerous levels). in the case of #2, it can still be fed, but has to be mixed with other grasses to lower the overall nitrogen intake.

some other stuff, like Poison Hemlock, appears to be poisonous... or not. the text will tell you it'll kill 'em dead. however, folks around here, including the extension agent, will tell you they see cattle, sheep, goats graze it all the time. but probably shouldn't be the only thing they have access to. seems they can develop some resistance if they eat it in small quantities as it grows. where they see bigger issues is in animals brought in from outside the area where they haven't been exposed to it, and then it's the only green thing in their new environment.

 

[animalfarm]

Not sure what variety of poisonous hemlock you all are referring to, but in BC we had what we referred to as water hemlock. It grew in wet areas along creek beds. The plant itself wasn't a problem but the root bulbs would kill anything that ate them. If stock pulled the plant out of wet ground and ended up eating the root bulb, it was game over. We always dug it up when ever we saw it even though we didn't know of any casualties. All livestock was on open range though, so they weren't forced into a situation where they had to eat it. The best thing to do, is pull a sample of every plant in your pasture and get it identifed. Most areas have good plant identification books specific to that local.

 

[zzGypsy]

Not sure what variety of poisonous hemlock you all are referring to, but in BC we had what we referred to as water hemlock. It grew in wet areas along creek beds. The plant itself wasn't a problem but the root bulbs would kill anything that ate them. If stock pulled the plant out of wet ground and ended up eating the root bulb, it was game over. We always dug it up when ever we saw it even though we didn't know of any casualties. All livestock was on open range though, so they weren't forced into a situation where they had to eat it. The best thing to do, is pull a sample of every plant in your pasture and get it identifed. Most areas have good plant identification books specific to that local.

poison hemlock and water hemlock are different plants...
poison hemlock is the one that is commonly confused with Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot... fine lacey leaves, purple/red blotching or spots on the stems near the base. we see it in hedgerows, along fencelines, and in areas where the ground has been disturbed. all parts of the poison hemlock are considered poisonous. except the local cows and goats don't seem to agree.
IIRC, water hemlock has a different leaf structure - not as filligree / fine / lacey, more like italian parsley and less like carrot tops.
Interestingly, when I lived in CO, we understood that poison hemlock, when growing on the edge of or near water, would be much more potent, higher poison content... but don't know that's proven fact, might just be the local folklore.