Mountain Cattle

[poorboy]

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.

 

[3MR]

A drought is what brought one side of my family to the mtns. back in 1841. They drove them here from Paris.

Wow, thats a long swim! :lol:

 

[C HOLLAND]

most mountain cattle around here fall victim to a bullet or arrow. target practice from a idiot hunter or city folk that would'nt know a deer from a mule

Or dont have any respect for anyone's property,,,,but hey they got permission to hunt the land from some out of state owner....HAHAHAHA and don't forget if their deer dogs get on your property they will think it's their right to trespass and get them back.

I will let anyone who shows me the courtesy of asking me first to hunt on my property if they don't take advantage and invite all their beer drinking budies with their 4 wheel drive trucks and trash throwers.

 

[Hasbeen]

A month or so ago someone threw a couple of strand of wire across a dirt road that leads up into the mountains past my place and turned loose a small herd of cattle. This is a huge area (I have in the past driven more than three miles up that road before turning around and saw no fences and only one old abandoned house) of nothing but timber and mountains with a stream running thru it. Last evening these cows wandered down to my fence so I walked over and took a look. They seemed to be in good shape living completely in the woods and, to my knowledge, having no access to pasture whatsoever. Not the way I would want to do it, but it seems to me to be an alternative in tough times.

 

[Hasbeen]

A drought is what brought one side of my family to the mtns. back in 1841. They drove them here from Paris.

Wow, thats a long swim! :lol:

I think he's speaking of Paris, Ky. I hope so anyway.

 

[Hasbeen]

I have several large oaks lining my pastures with lots acorns every fall. Never known it to be a problem.

Our cows are the definition of mountain cattle. Most of what we run over is a mix of pasture and mountain side. They do fine. The deal with acorns here is we let them run over it continuously and get acclimated to the acorns as they fall as opposed to turning them off pasture right into them suddenly. If you do that they may eat too many and bloat up big time.
The old people used to turn the few cattle they run into the mountains and not bring them back til winter. As for poison, ours are born and raised here. They must know what to eat and what not to. However, I do watch for downed wild cherry.

Well, Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky are very close and I would think have pretty much the same forrest composition. As I said earlier, many people in this area do it, it just never seemed like the best idea to me. Of course, I had grass at the time.

 

[Hasbeen]

The time proven saying her is, "the woods aren't that great for the cows but the cows sure are great for the woods." We run them in the woods quite a bit. They seem to know what to eat and what not to. Problems arise when they don't have any choices of what to eat. By the way though, be sure the loggers didn't leave any batteries out there. We had this happen and lost six cows before we could figure out what was killing them.

Wonder why the saying is that cows are great for woods?

I have checked for batteries etc and have seen nothing. Still, the woods are a dangerous place after logging and I do have some concern for not only the cows' safety but mine. There are always a lot of "widow makers", parts of trees hanging from other trees. Also there are trees leaning against others, plus the unstable brush piles on steep hillsides.

 

[Hasbeen]

I figured my first responses would be from Tennessee or W.Virginia. Texans and Kansas folks aren't going to be much help on this one.

We can still read along and learn tho :lol:

True. Never know when a mountain might show up in Texas.

Franklin Mountains in west Texas.

You're absolutely right, I took a look at a satelite photo and there are several mountain ranges in West Texas. Texas is a huge place and I guess there is at least a little of everything there.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

A month or so ago someone threw a couple of strand of wire across a dirt road that leads up into the mountains past my place and turned loose a small herd of cattle. This is a huge area (I have in the past driven more than three miles up that road before turning around and saw no fences and only one old abandoned house) of nothing but timber and mountains with a stream running thru it. Last evening these cows wandered down to my fence so I walked over and took a look. They seemed to be in good shape living completely in the woods and, to my knowledge, having no access to pasture whatsoever. Not the way I would want to do it, but it seems to me to be an alternative in tough times.

"Nothing but timber and mountains with a stream running though it", - sounds like a catchy title for a movie on raisin' cows, don't it?. People in my area, (western Arkansas, Ouachita mountains) used to do it all the time, hogs as well. ;-)

 

[Hasbeen]

Thought y'all might want an update. We got 5 inches of rain in the past week and the pastures have greened up nicely and the grass is beginning to grow again. The cows have come down and are staying in the pastures now and actually look better than they did before they went up there. If I don't see any long term effects in the future I think I can recommend this as short term solution in times of drought or other pasture problems.

 

[tryinhard]

Here is a link, whatever year it happened to us and a neighbor it was a drought, and had some timber cut also, and the cows were crazy for the white oak leaves. The Vet said it was worse then the acorn was about half green and half brown. here is a link I just looked up.http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant47.htm

tryinhard

 

[cfpinz]

The time proven saying her is, "the woods aren't that great for the cows but the cows sure are great for the woods." We run them in the woods quite a bit. They seem to know what to eat and what not to. Problems arise when they don't have any choices of what to eat. By the way though, be sure the loggers didn't leave any batteries out there. We had this happen and lost six cows before we could figure out what was killing them.

Joe - Would you mind elaborating on the batteries? Never heard of this.

Almost all of our cattle have acces to mountains/woodland. Some are in tracts that are over half woods. Doesn't bother me and I've never heard them complain.

cfpinz

 

[Hasbeen]

The time proven saying her is, "the woods aren't that great for the cows but the cows sure are great for the woods." We run them in the woods quite a bit. They seem to know what to eat and what not to. Problems arise when they don't have any choices of what to eat. By the way though, be sure the loggers didn't leave any batteries out there. We had this happen and lost six cows before we could figure out what was killing them.

Joe - Would you mind elaborating on the batteries? Never heard of this.

Almost all of our cattle have acces to mountains/woodland. Some are in tracts that are over half woods. Doesn't bother me and I've never heard them complain.

cfpinz

I was driving home to lunch one day and as I passed a place with a couple of horses I noticed one had it's head in the back of a pickup that someone had parked there. When I went back by after lunch I noticed the horse lying down next to the truck and when I glanced at the truck I noticed it had old car batteries in it. When I went back by on the way home that evening I didn't see the horse but there was a backhoe and a fresh mound of dirt where the horse had lain. I guess there must be something on the batteries they like to lick. I don't know why a logger would leave something like this in the woods but I did look the place over several times.

 

[cfpinz]

I was driving home to lunch one day and as I passed a place with a couple of horses I noticed one had it's head in the back of a pickup that someone had parked there. When I went back by after lunch I noticed the horse lying down next to the truck and when I glanced at the truck I noticed it had old car batteries in it. When I went back by on the way home that evening I didn't see the horse but there was a backhoe and a fresh mound of dirt where the horse had lain. I guess there must be something on the batteries they like to lick. I don't know why a logger would leave something like this in the woods but I did look the place over several times.

This has really peaked my curiousity because my father is famous for leaving them laying around. Has done so as long as I can remember and I bet that one could stumble on a half-dozen or so on his place right now.

One of the farms I lease is owned by an older gentleman who basically tossed everything out on the edge of the field. I ran a car battery thru the bush hog last year, made an interesting noise. :lol:

cfpinz

 

[Hasbeen]

Lead, plastic, and sulfuric acid are not something I would want laying around even if the animals would leave it alone. No chance it would bio-degrade and it will be there forever. The gift that keeps on giving.