Hedge Apples

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TCRanch said:
@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.
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Free range pigs do an excellent job of clearing apples they absolutely love them and can't get enough of them, acorns to, I keep a few (5-6) in a enclosed paddock I made and planted a few apple trees around it for them, the meat is superb an I sell it locally.

I have a few wild apple trees in my hedges with tiny apples but not around the cow pastures ( I don't think!) although I did plant a couple over the fence on our main pasture which sounds like it wasn't a great idea guess I'll have to keep an eye on them and cut them back should I need to.
 
devonian said:
Free range pigs do an excellent job of clearing apples they absolutely love them and can't get enough of them, acorns to.
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Being from the UK, you may not realize that what is referred to as a "hedge apple" is not really an apple, but the fruit of the Osage Orange tree. They can be bothersome as their limbs have thorns and there is not much good use for their fruit.
As I understand, pigs will eat them, but they are not what would be classified as an apple.
 
I had to (was asked to) go help chase cows out of a bean field and back in to their pasture the other night. While I was unwiring the gate 11 cows were happily milling around playing with hedge apples and stripping soy beans off the rows at the edge of the field.
 
If undertaking total elimination from the property is too big of an undertaking, you could just identify female trees - the ones producing the big green 'brain' fruits and chainsaw girdle and do a basal herbicide treatment. Non-fruit-bearing trees are 'males', and do not pose a choking hazard.
 
sstterry said:
Being from the UK, you may not realize that what is referred to as a "hedge apple" is not really an apple, but the fruit of the Osage Orange tree. They can be bothersome as their limbs have thorns and there is not much good use for their fruit.
As I understand, pigs will eat them, but they are not what would be classified as an apple.
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Oh! I had to google it, how odd a fruit that isn't poisonous but barely edible either. But yeah a hog I suspect would happily chomp on it, but maybe not as much as a real hedge apple :LOL:
 
sstterry said:
I have been told, that way back in the day that homesteaders would plant the Osage Orange trees really close together to form a natural fencelike barrier to keep in livestock.
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Yes, that's how they got the "hedge" name attached. Several old guys around here will tell you how they hated Christmas break from school. That's the time their dad would decide to trim the hedge rows. They used hedge knives similar to a corn knife to trim low hanging branches and keep the hedge row growing straight.
I've cut a lot of really nice straight posts out of old hedge rows. Once seasoned they'll last 100years, but good luck driving a staple in them. :ROFLMAO:
 
I have 3-4 crabapple trees in my pasture. Apples are very small so I don't think they are a choking hazard . But with cattle if it can happen it will happen ! Deer are doing their share of eating them so I keep my fingers crossed.
 
SBMF 2015 said:
. . . I've cut a lot of really nice straight posts out of old hedge rows. Once seasoned they'll last 100years, but good luck driving a staple in them. :ROFLMAO:
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It's not really a problem. You just need a good cordless drill with a sharp bit. Drill two holes first and anyone can drive a staple in one.
 
Lucky_P said:
If undertaking total elimination from the property is too big of an undertaking, you could just identify female trees - the ones producing the big green 'brain' fruits and chainsaw girdle and do a basal herbicide treatment. Non-fruit-bearing trees are 'males', and do not pose a choking hazard.
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That's the eventual plan with the Remedy. At least in the pasture where I wean the calves. Not sure if it's viable on the whole section - or if I have the gumption to take on that big of a project. But I have identified the female trees in a few of the pastures.
 
Just a little extra, including pics, of my cow I almost lost to a dang hedge apple.

Hope she makes it!

Went out to feed this afternoon and saw one of my cows bloated, frothy, coughing & gagging. I immediately suspected a hedge apple. Fortunately, she wasn't far from the barn and I was able to get her in (after a little detour in the woods and me face-planting in the mud). Called the vet...
www.cattletoday.com www.cattletoday.com
 
Rafter S said:
It's not really a problem. You just need a good cordless drill with a sharp bit. Drill two holes first and anyone can drive a staple in one.
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Nah, it's to much fun to watch the young hires struggle. There's a nack to it. A good milled face hammer is a must, and no 1½" staples.

A drill works when fixing fence, but 10 holes per post for a new five barb fence becomes a lot.
 
I have seen similar issues with cattle grazing on sugar beets fields.
 
kenny thomas said:
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.
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THIS! in a year you can push them over
 
Does basal bark treatment work well on rough bark species? I have only tried it on smooth bark trees like Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven-should be named Tree of Hell) and the results were amazing.

I sprayed quite a bit a few winters ago with Triclopyr 4 mixed with diesel. I kind of forgot about it and when I checked them about a year later they were mostly on the ground from dying and getting blown over by the wind.
 
chaded said:
What is the diameter of the trees you are wanting to kill?
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I got nuthin. They're mature trees and I would guess at least 24" circumference but can check in the morning. "Guess" being the operative word, since I'm primarily focusing on the dang apples. Most of them have lost their fruit by now, just a few stragglers.
 

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