Post by CatLady on Aug 1, 2018 15:57:24 GMT -5
My cow and her baby are coming this weekend. Good news. Now for the bad news. My home is a repo. Great price... crap load of clean up. The previous owners had a tendency to make burn piles everywhere and leave the tin and other unburnable part behind. We have gradually been using pigs and goats to clean up the brush which reveals a steady stream of new trash... usually just when we dare hope we have cleaned it all up. I have two options for pasture. One is a lovely grassy area just suited to a cow but known to be hiding pieces of tin, old nails etc. from burn piles. Option two is not as attractive from a nutritional standpoint but we have gone over it with a fine toothed comb and know it is safe. We currently keep goats on it and they are doing well browsing on what is mainly a forest of blackberry, wild roses and poplar saplings. There are some ferns in there but they ignore them because there is so much good food and they are quickly being trampled to oblivion. This area also has a small stream running through it. The end goal is to plant this in grass for pasture but the cow was something of a surprise.
I had a cow before many years ago and lived in terror of hardware disease but she never had an issue even though there were plenty of opportunities due to having the house reroofed and other construction projects where the workers were careless. (I grazed her in the yard) I am beginning to wonder if I was just lucky or if the whole hardware disease thing is over rated. At the same time I am leaning towards the wooded area supplemented with hay (if you think I need it). We have huge expanses of land that was cut over about 4 years ago and it is covered with scrub. I just do not know how well cows to on what looks like a diet meant for goats to me. I know cattle in Africa are fed a diet of tree branches as their main source of food but that was all I could find online. I am in Virginia so obviously the trees are different but it is predominately poplar with lots of weeds. My previous cow was extremely fond of breaking out and eating my fruit and shade trees so I figure I am good there but just want to be sure.
I had a cow before many years ago and lived in terror of hardware disease but she never had an issue even though there were plenty of opportunities due to having the house reroofed and other construction projects where the workers were careless. (I grazed her in the yard) I am beginning to wonder if I was just lucky or if the whole hardware disease thing is over rated. At the same time I am leaning towards the wooded area supplemented with hay (if you think I need it). We have huge expanses of land that was cut over about 4 years ago and it is covered with scrub. I just do not know how well cows to on what looks like a diet meant for goats to me. I know cattle in Africa are fed a diet of tree branches as their main source of food but that was all I could find online. I am in Virginia so obviously the trees are different but it is predominately poplar with lots of weeds. My previous cow was extremely fond of breaking out and eating my fruit and shade trees so I figure I am good there but just want to be sure.