A drought is what brought one side of my family to the mtns. back in 1841. They drove them here from Paris. The cows most of the time prefer tree tops to grass let alone hay and will do well on them. As far as the acorns I have heard that it was the caps that caused most of the problems, strictly hear say. My Uncle lost a steer to acorns they claim was the cause but my cows eat them like candy. Getting used to them makes sense, sort of like bloating on clover.Good Luck and hang in there. Things get too bad fire up the chainsaw, Thats how I got though '99 and cleared up the overgrown fence rows to boot. PS they love boxed elders, Starting my husky up is equal to rattling a bucket around here.