Cattle and trees

[Lowdown3]

I know a few here have cattle.

Have an area that at some point in the future we are considering running some cattle on. There are small'ish trees there, some 7 or so years old, some 15 years old, pecan trees.

I know our goats rub up on everything/anything they can. I have a feeling that cows would also. Obviously a cow is a heckuva lot bigger animal.

How much destruction can they cause? Do they rub like that?

[xdpatriot]

I know a few here have cattle.

Have an area that at some point in the future we are considering running some cattle on. There are small'ish trees there, some 7 or so years old, some 15 years old, pecan trees.

I know our goats rub up on everything/anything they can. I have a feeling that cows would also. Obviously a cow is a heckuva lot bigger animal.

How much destruction can they cause? Do they rub like that?

They'll rub but shouldn't hurt the trees. You can always wrap barbed wire around the trunks to discourage rubbing.

[Lowdown3]

Thanks.

Was thinking along those lines but there is several hundred trees. I'm guessing there is only a handful that could be harmed by them.

[610Alpha]

Look up Silvopasture and Mark Shepard (author of Restoration Agriculture). Tons of research is being done on Silvopasture (Columbia, Mo.) and Woody Perennial Polyculture (U of I) also Agroforestry.

http://wppresearch.org/

http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/practices/sp.php

http://www.forestag.com/bio.html the # of crops he is getting is pretty amazing.

http://www.permaculturevoices.com/podcast/the-future-of-agriculture-changing-the-concept-with-mark-shepard-pvp039/

The cattle will fertilize for you then about 3 days later run chickens through the same area to do pest control and fertilize (Joel Salatin and others do this), leader/follower type of system. See my reviews on Joel's books they are well worth the money and time.

Another resource is Darren Doherty from Australia.

[motesjm]

Ours are fenced in with a few of my 6 yo pecan trees. They do rub against the trunk and damage the bark, and they will eat leaves from lower lying limbs but not enough to hurt the trees. At least not in our case.