Hedge Apples

[TCRanch]

On my to-do list: cut down every dang hedge tree. Including any neighbors' trees even remotely near our fence line.

Cow love hedge apples! But so do calves. Lost a steer a couple years ago; found him directly under a hedge tree and his mouth was frothy. And I didn't learn my lesson. But what are the odds?

Went out for my first-thing-in-the-morning check of the recently weaned calves (well, 10/3) and as I pulled up to that pasture, I noticed a heifer by herself. Something clearly wasn't right & initially thought she was aborting by the way she was standing (all heifers get Lutalyse at weaning). Nope. Serious bloat, frothing at the mouth, appeared to have a hard time breathing. Still amazed how easy it was to push her with the Polaris far enough I could catch her in the livestock shelter. Called the vet & said I'd be there in 30 minutes. A little tube action from the vet with me holding her head and a lot of pink, watery fluid came out, eventually followed by a hunk of hedge apple - and of course an enormous amount of gas. Looks like that one hunk 'o hedge apple was enough to partially obstruct her airway. The rest of it is still probably in her rumen but my vet gave her probiotics, said to keep an eye on her, she should be good to go. She still seems a little traumatized, but came right up to me when I went out to feed, ate some cubes and looks about 40 lbs. thinner.

All good, right? Except back to my initial statement. My vet said he had a cow in a few weeks prior with a hedge apple lodged in her throat. Couldn't get it pushed down & couldn't get it out, even trying to wedge his fingers behind the apple in her throat. Tried everything they could think of for over an hour and eventually lost her. Hello, my trusty Stihl and heavy duty gloves!

 

[SBMF 2015]

Save the posts! They will last forever. We have hedge trees everywhere. Only ever had 1 cow choke.
If you are going to cut them down be sure to put some Tordon on the stumps. Otherwise next spring you will have hedge bushes.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Good job on catching it!
My lil lease place has hedge apples....
One more thing to worry about.

 

[TCRanch]

Save the posts! They will last forever. We have hedge trees everywhere. Only ever had 1 cow choke.
If you are going to cut them down be sure to put some Tordon on the stumps. Otherwise next spring you will have hedge bushes.

Two of the pastures had nothing but hedge posts when we bought the ranch - and have since been replaced. Neighbors took all the posts for firewood.

Hubby gave me "the look" with raised eyebrows when I announced my intention to cut them all down. He's right. Logistically, a pretty far fetched idea - even if I paid to have it done.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Two of the pastures had nothing but hedge posts when we bought the ranch - and have since been replaced. Neighbors took all the posts for firewood.

Hubby gave me "the look" with raised eyebrows when I announced my intention to cut them all down. He's right. Logistically, a pretty far fetched idea - even if I paid to have it done.

The place that I am Herdsmen for has a farm that they bought in the '50's. The barn wire has been replaced, but most of the hedge posts were there when they bought the place. Most are about as big around as my arm. They were probably cut with an axe and set by hand, but are still solid.

When I run out of things to do(Hahaha). I try and clear out small hedge trees in my pastures. If you don't keep working at it they will take over.

 

[libertygarden]

Stihl and heavy duty gloves? How about a dozer. I have a love hate relationship with bodarks.

 

[Nesikep]

I had my nicest bred heifer choke on potatoes once...
Still, i'll trade you hedge apples for ponderosa pines

 

[kenny thomas]

For low volume basal bark treat- ments, apply a mixture of 25 percent triclopyr (example: Remedy®) and 75 percent diesel fuel or sprayable mineral oil to the lower 12-18 inches of the trunk in a manner that thor- oughly wets the lower trunk and root collar area, but not to the point of runoff.

 

[kenny thomas]

When it's dead it's dead.

 

[greybeard]

For low volume basal bark treat- ments, apply a mixture of 25 percent triclopyr (example: Remedy®) and 75 percent diesel fuel or sprayable mineral oil to the lower 12-18 inches of the trunk in a manner that thor- oughly wets the lower trunk and root collar area, but not to the point of runoff.

Same treatment and ratio works on lots of species, including chinese tallow.
(works best on younger trees, but will work on older rough bark trees too if you cut slashes into the bark and squirt some into the slash.

TCRanch, if you do chainsaw them to death, spray the same ratio and recipe on to the stumps within 1 hour of cutting them down. If not, good chance they will resprout and in a cluster instead of a single trunk.
"If you saw one down, 6 will come to it's funeral"

(the reason for the time limitation is to prevent sap from forming and hardening on top of the stump and sealing it off. That would prevent herbicide absorption.)

 

[TCRanch]

I had my nicest bred heifer choke on potatoes once...
Still, i'll trade you hedge apples for ponderosa pines

A potato? Oh no! But yeah, fortunately no ponderosa pines around here.

BTW, vet asked me if I was keeping her as a replacement because she's a beautiful heifer. Well, I wasn't planning on it but now . . . . maybe?

 

[TCRanch]

Same treatment and ratio works on lots of species, including chinese tallow.
(works best on younger trees, but will work on older rough bark trees too if you cut slashes into the bark and squirt some into the slash.

TCRanch, if you do chainsaw them to death, spray the same ratio and recipe on to the stumps within 1 hour of cutting them down. If not, good chance they will resprout and in a cluster instead of a single trunk.
"If you saw one down, 6 will come to it's funeral"

(the reason for the time limitation is to prevent sap from forming and hardening on top of the stump and sealing it off. That would prevent herbicide absorption.)

Yikes, that fast?! Good to know, thanks!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Same can happen with normal apples. Every time I move my herd this time of year, the mature cows make a bee-line for any apple trees in the fenceline. I always cringe.

 

[Nesikep]

Same can happen with normal apples. Every time I move my herd this time of year, the mature cows make a bee-line for any apple trees in the fenceline. I always cringe.

we have some 80 year old apple trees, yup, the cows make a bee line for them whenever they're in that field, and have learned that rubbing on them might just make an apple fall

 

[76 Bar]

...mine rear up on their hind legs in order to pluck the bounty.

 

[kenny thomas]

No apples in my pastures but the persimmons are loaded. They clean up every one.
Had a guy tell me this morning that his cows were eating hickory nuts. Never seen that before.

 

[Rafter S]

No apples in my pastures but the persimmons are loaded. They clean up every one.
Had a guy tell me this morning that his cows were eating hickory nuts. Never seen that before.

In my part of the country a cow will occasionally learn to eat pecans, and once they get started that's all they want to eat. They'll get thin in a hurry.

 

[Lucky_P]

Worst choke I ever dealt with was on the evening of my eldest child's birth. Got called away from the hospital to go see a heifer choked on an apple... the owner had been pitching 'em over the fence to them. I'd worked this group of WILD-@SS! BrahmanXMilking Shorthorn heifers fairly recently... they probably came closer to sailing out over the 8 ft corral fence at the clinic than anything I'd ever seen. Sure tried their best to get out!
This heifer was, perhaps, the wildest of the bunch. No way he was gonna get her in his corral... she was onto that ploy... took a while driving around the pasture to finally get close enough to shoot her with the Cap-Chur gun.
No way to reach it, and I used every stomach tube I had on the practice truck trying to push that apple on down into her rumen, but it just would not budge. Finally ended up making a rumen fistula... flank incision, cut into the rumen and sewed the edges to the skin. Didn't matter... she was so stressed that she was dead the next morning.

Have seen a few come to the necropsy laboratory, over the 28 years I worked as a pathologist, with partially-chewed hedgeapple/Osage Orange fruits stuck in their esophagus.

 

[MurraysMutts]

So I saw this today....
And immediately went looking for a hedge apple thread. I guess they don't hurt the cows as long as they don't choke on em??
She broke it up in 3 pieces as she was eating it. Of coarse its the new gurl I bought last month. @TCRanch u keep your heifer that was feasting on them?
And how many stihl's have you worn out 2 years later?

 

[TCRanch]

@MurraysMutts, no I didn't keep the heifer. But I'm definitely keeping the heifer out of the cow I almost lost on a hedge apple last year and thought she aborted.

And I didn't go all Paulette Bunyan and cut down all the hedge trees. The Remedy was an excellent idea, but life happened, and I never got around to it. But I do go into the pasture with the weanlings and pick up the dang hedge apples every day. Seriously. Some days I'll fill the back of my Polaris, other days maybe pick up one.

Additionally, I'm now equipped with a stomach tube, Frick speculum, trocar, nose tongs, bloat guard, and I rigged a dowel rod with a giant screw that I can screw into a hedge apple if it's lodged where I can see it and pull it out. Also cut off the end of a heavy-duty plunger that will fit into a cow or calfs' mouth to keep it open but protected in case it jerks around while I'm yielding my screw-contraption. Hope I never need it but at least I have a plan.