Hungry cattle turn to acorns, face poisoning

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Sir Loin

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Hungry cattle turn to acorns, face poisoning
Brett Wessler | Updated: November 3, 2011
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A lack of good forage has cattle searching for alternative food sources, including acorns, which can be deadly, said Shane Gadberry, associate professor-ruminant nutrition for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
Source: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-new ... 61913.html

Here is a good message to remember if you start getting sick cows, and it's not "acorns make cows sick!
It is HUNGRY cow eat acorns! Remember that!
Which leaves you only two options if you suspect acorns are making your cows sick.
Option 1.
Remove your cows to a pasture without acorns.
Option 2.
Feed your cows.
SL
 
They don't always have to be hungry, just a taste for them. Had an older boss cow sneak off from the herd last fall and packed herself with acorns. By the time I found her the damage was done. She was bloated to the point I thought she would pop. Vet stopped by but she didn't last 24hr. I have never seen acorns like we had here last year.

fitz
 
fitz":191so3uo said:
They don't always have to be hungry, just a taste for them. fitz


Agreed. The group I had get sick from them (evidently) this year (one dying) were on a pasture with a lot of oaks. They had green grass pasture but, for some reason this year, they went for the acorns. I'm sure it would have been WORSE if they didn't have the pasture and maybe they ALL would have been sick or more died.
 
More apt to be searching for a better protein source. If the grass or hay has no protein to speak of the search for supplementation. In this case it's acorns.
 
Around here NWA white oak acorns are almost always the ones that cause problems. Seen cows in belly deep grass posion on white oak acorns. We have had a few frost and light freezes that should help with the problem. Pen acorn posioned cattle and feed slacked lime.
 
Wrong. I've seen cattle,in large numbers, gorge and become poisoned on acorns, during heavy mast crop years - especially with acorns from the white oak group; bur oak was a frequent offender in MO - and with plenty of good quality forage available. You could run 'em a bunch of fluids and get 'em up on their feet - and they'd stagger right back - through lush grass - to the oaks to begin eating acorns again, unless you penned 'em up or excluded them from them in some way.
 
What a crock of
bull.gif
.
If what you'll are saying were true, cattle would have been extinct long ago.
To cattle, and humans, acorns taste terrible and will only be eaten when there is nothing else to eat.
Fact: Cattle don't like acorns.
Feed your cattle and you won't have a problem with acorns.

Or you'll got the dumbest dam cattle I ever heard of!!
SL
 
Sir Loin":2rcqdkiz said:
What a crock of
bull.gif
.
If what you'll are saying were true, cattle would have been extinct long ago.
To cattle, and humans, acorns taste terrible and will only be eaten when there is nothing else to eat.
Fact: Cattle don't like acorns.
Feed your cattle and you won't have a problem with acorns.

Or you'll got the dumbest dam cattle I ever heard of!!
SL
I don't know where you got your education or experience, but cattle do eat acorns. When they start, they get a craving for them.
 
Re:
When they start, they get a craving for them.
Again :bs:

And exactly how do you know that? Quote your source. URL please.

I have never known any animal that would eat anything that tasted nasty to them when they have something they liked to eat!
SL
 
Sir Loin":1a0z9m30 said:
Re:
When they start, they get a craving for them.
Again :bs:

And exactly how do you know that? Quote your source. URL please.

I have never known any animal that would eat anything that tasted nasty to them when they have something they liked to eat!
SL

Well, OK then. Since you won't listen to folks who, unlike you, have real-world experience with cattle, I've taken the liberty of providing a couple of "copy and pastes". Since that's an area that seems to dominate your world I thought you might understand the language. By the way, I'd be interested to know how you know what ANYTHING tastes like to an animal, and why you would possibly think that animals can't acquire a taste for something we humans might find unpleasant, and vice versa.

Blair McKinley, MSU extension cattle specialist, said most cows can eat a few acorns or oak buds without being poisoned. It's when they eat large amounts that a problem occurs.

"Acorns are bitter, but some cattle develop a taste for them," McKinley said. "If they like their taste, cattle will go back to acorns even if hay is provided."

http://msucares.com/news/print/cvm/cvm97/971110rh.htm

Most cattle like the taste of acorns and tend to seek them out.

http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2006 ... T618.shtml

The leaves and acorns of the oak tree are poisonous to cattle, horses, sheep, and goats in large amounts due to the toxin tannic acid, and cause kidney damage and gastroenteritis. Additionally, once livestock have a taste for the leaves and acorns, they may seek them out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak#Toxicity

Acorn poisoning will generally affect only a few animals in the herd, as acorn poisoning only occurs if animals eat large amounts of acorns (which will only occur in cattle which develop a taste for them).

http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinf ... -poisoning
 
I have had and still have cattle in pastures with oaks and never had a problem. I have even run cattle in river and creek bottoms that are full of oaks. Im not saying cattle wont eat acorns but I think other problems such as improper diet may get blamed on acorns. I will probably lose one this year after saying that.
 
BC":1faw9kua said:
Sir Loin":1faw9kua said:
What a crock of
bull.gif
.
If what you'll are saying were true, cattle would have been extinct long ago.
To cattle, and humans, acorns taste terrible and will only be eaten when there is nothing else to eat.
Fact: Cattle don't like acorns.
Feed your cattle and you won't have a problem with acorns.

Or you'll got the dumbest dam cattle I ever heard of!!
SL
I don't know where you got your education or experience, but cattle do eat acorns. When they start, they get a craving for them.


They do here. I run cattle along the Blue Ridge mountains of Va. Couldn't begin to fence 'em out of woods on this place. Even with good forage they will often rummage thru the woods eating acorns. Their mothers did it and their mothers before them and their mothers before them. Most times they soon migrate back to the pastures. Every once in a while one will go to them and eat too many. Wildlife will travel a long way in search of white oak acorns which have a real sweet taste to the animal. But what do I know. Plus now I find my cows are mentally challenged.

fitz
 
Deer, turkeys, hogs, and cattle love the taste of acorns. Deer, turkey, and hogs will fatten on acorns, while cattle will lose weight. Cattle will lose weight chasing acorns and not eating enough other food and then sometimes become sick and die with what is called "acorn poisoning" around here. Usually, that means the sharp points of the acorns have cut and sliced the stomach wall and infection has set in. They get the scours, lose weight and, many times, die. My cows eat acorns every year and if you keep them enough to eat, they usually keep enough padding in the stomach to protect the lining. During a drought, other food is in short supply and the acorns do not have much cushion and become packed in the stomach and slice it to shreds. I have cut open acorn poisoned cows and they have had their belly packed full of dry acorns and puss and blood from the bleeding and infection. It doesn't matter how much they have to eat, beginning in September and until the acorns have frozen and spoiled, the cows will be under every oak tree waiting for the next acorn to fall. I have way too many oaks to get the cattle away from them, so like most folks, I am at the mercy of the acorns. However, I usually sell the bogger calves or wean them when acorns start falling because they go downhill the fastest
 
Cattle can, will, and do eat far too many acorns some years - and often they'll do this even when there is ample forage and other foodstuffs available. Yes, there may be issues when pastures are 'short', but more often than not, that has not been the case in the numerous times I've dealt with it as a practicing veterinarian and as a diagnostic pathologist in the past 35 years.
It doesn't happen every year or even every other year, but some years, when there's a heavy crop of acorns everywhere or just one or a few particular trees cropping heavily, some animals seem to develop an unalterable craving for them - and often, we'd see multiple animals on a farm affected.

Gallotannins and other compounds in the acorns irritate intestinal mucosa and damage renal tubular epithelium - ultimately, these animals die of renal failure - initially, they may have diarrhea , but terminally they become constipated and dehydrated. If you examine the rumen contents, you may find excessive amounts of acorns in varying degrees of digestion, with some having barely been chewed.
Deer, goats, and other species have proline-rich proteins in their saliva which bind and inactivate the gallotannins, allowing them to eat acorns with impunity. Cattle do not possess these compounds, and cannot detoxify large quantities of acorns.

Native Americans - and aboriginal folks around the globe wherever oaks grow - use or used acorns as a dietary staple. Acorns are rich in carbohydrates and fat, with red/black oaks having higher fat content, and 'storing' better for longer periods of time(YEARS in specially-constructed granaries that the American Indians in the Southwestern US built), than members of the white oak group. Acorns were hulled, then pounded/ground to meal/flour and leached with water to remove the tannins. Some folks still regularly process and eat acorns today.

There is a small group of folks in the Northern Nut Growers Assn, International Oak Society, and North American Fruit Explorers groups who are working to identify and propagate oak selections that produce low- tannin acorns(I'm one of that group). I've had the opportunity to eat acorns from some of those selections that are totally non-bitter. Not much flavor - kinda like a really bland chestnut - but not bitter. Have grafts and seedlings of several of those low-tannin selections growing here on the farm. Genetics is not the full story; rainfall and growing conditions from year to year do have some effect on bitterness - or lack thereof.
 
I've never had a problem with cows eating acorns. I do know goats love acorns. They will be on one side of the place and when the wind blows they head straight to the oaks. :cowboy:
 
I've never had a problem with acorn poisoning in my own cattle - but mine are fenced out of the woods and don't have access to any ground with any significant number of oaks during the time of year when acorns would be dropping.
I used to see the cows on the farm back home in AL, where they had the run of the whole place including the woods, rooting through the leaves for those tiny little water oak acorns. Doubt that they ever were able to get enough of them to cause a problem - but these big ol' white oak and bur oak acorns? That's another creature altogether. I've got some bur oaks that produce acorns that'll run in the 6-8/lb range - with the cap removed.

Regardless of whether I've had any in my own cattle, I've seen enough cases in my veterinary career to know that acorns can be a problem some years on some farms.
 
Sir Loin":1kzs145t said:
Re:
When they start, they get a craving for them.
Again :bs:

And exactly how do you know that? Quote your source. URL please.

I have never known any animal that would eat anything that tasted nasty to them when they have something they liked to eat!
SL
How do I know - Observations from over 40 years of owning cattle in East Texas where oak trees are too common to fence out. Since hands on experience and observations don't mean much to you, here is an article. Go to page 2 for acorn poisoning.

http://aevm.tamu.edu/files/2010/06/Fall ... fHerds.pdf
 
Acorn poisoning has been a long term problem on common grazing in England, an ancient tradition, almost extinct now is "Pannage" the turning out of pigs into the forest to clean up acorns to prevent excessive uptake by cattle and ponies;
http://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/living-i ... in-pannage
I turn out a group of wild boar crosses into our woodland, we will harvest them on the 22 Nov to be smoked for the Christmas market, the cattle here are grass fed only and wintered outdoors so will gorge on Acorns if we do not remove most with the pigs.
 
Sir Loin":f2udg7rg said:
What a crock of
bull.gif
.
If what you'll are saying were true, cattle would have been extinct long ago.
To cattle, and humans, acorns taste terrible and will only be eaten when there is nothing else to eat.
Fact: Cattle don't like acorns.
Feed your cattle and you won't have a problem with acorns.

Or you'll got the dumbest dam cattle I ever heard of!!
SL


My cattle have access to woods 365 and there is any kind of oak you want to find. I am deer hunting the same woods, never lost one to acorn's.
 

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