Lucky_P
Well-known member
Depending upon your timber stand, the value of the trees may be far in excess of any perceived feed benefit you get from running the cows 'in the woods'. Cattle are notoriously poor foresters - compacting soil, causing erosion, eating or damaging young seedling trees, etc.
Figures I've seen put forward indicate that it takes - in a typical woodland setting - 40-60 acres of wooded ground to produce enough forage to support one cow-calf pair. A whole herd roaming through the woods can probably damage or diminish timber quality more than the little bit of feed value gained.
On the farm I grew up on, the cows ran all through the woods - made it hard to find 'em sometimes, and sometimes you just stumbled over a skeleton somewhere down the line.
Perimeter fences here do go about 40 ft into the edge of the woods - I'm convinced that they need some access to shade at times - but I've pretty well written off any timber value - and prolonged survival - of any trees in that shady bufferstrip, but the cows are fenced out of the rest of my timberland.
Figures I've seen put forward indicate that it takes - in a typical woodland setting - 40-60 acres of wooded ground to produce enough forage to support one cow-calf pair. A whole herd roaming through the woods can probably damage or diminish timber quality more than the little bit of feed value gained.
On the farm I grew up on, the cows ran all through the woods - made it hard to find 'em sometimes, and sometimes you just stumbled over a skeleton somewhere down the line.
Perimeter fences here do go about 40 ft into the edge of the woods - I'm convinced that they need some access to shade at times - but I've pretty well written off any timber value - and prolonged survival - of any trees in that shady bufferstrip, but the cows are fenced out of the rest of my timberland.