The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Sandyknox on December 19, 2014, 08:34:52 pm
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My sheep managed to get out in amungst some trees a couple of days ago and they have stripped the bark all the pay round the tree , does anyone no the best way to fix this , thankyou
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the tree will die :'(
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Mine did the same and so did the sheep at work. I've not noticed it before. we'd already started feeding them hay and lick buckets. hoping someone else can tell us why they're doing it.
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There's going to be a lot of dead trees in derbyshire then.
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If the tree is totally ring barked then it will die. Sometimes there is a strip of bark left which is sufficient for the tree to survive, but it will never thrive.
They do it because that is what sheep do, especially the primitive breeds. There are all sorts of vitamins and minerals just under the bark layer which are good for the sheep, plus they get forage from the leaves.
Just check they don't have access to any poisonous trees :tree:
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Yes, and don't listen to folks who tell you that Shropshires don't eat trees. I've just hired a ram to a chap who has a Christmas tree farm who can put you right on that subject!
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what kind of tree? mine love rowans but tend to ignore birches, and will sell thier little sheepie souls for willow. as for stopping them you could put three or four posts in around a special tree and use wire or rails to deny them reaching that tree, but i would only do this for special trees cos of the cost. i dont recomend barb wire as they will rubb on the posts. good luck
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Ours always seem to this in late nov/early dec and it seems to coincide with the grass becoming sparse. Feeding hay does not seem to stop them and they persist until brought in for lambing. Mostly it is willow which invariably recovers even when completely ring barked.
Horses also sem to adopt the same behaviour.
Regen
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Just been reading this post... Fleecewife, what trees are poisonous? I know things like Yew, rhododendron, probably Laburnum, but wondered what other ones were? Thank you
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Portugese Laurel is a common hedge plant that's often overlooked in the poison stakes.
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We have 2 acre woodland and is almost taken over by rhododendron (or at least I think thats what it is) Its looks nice with the flowers on but its going to be a problem if its poisonous. My plan was to have pigs in there next year to help clear some of it. If anyone on here can identify it i'll get some pictures.
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youngrasher - rhodies are a large woody shrub to small multistemmed tree, have very thick dark leaves, shade everything else out, very showy flowers, mostly pink in Spring/early summer. Spreads all over. It's certainly poisonous though I've no idea if pigs would eat it or just root it out. Yes, post some piccies.
For other poisonous trees moprabbit, I'm not sure. The castor oil plant (ricinus -> ricin poison) is lethal to everything though it's more of a garden plant. Laurel, yes, rhodies yes, laburnum yes but I think it's just the seeds, yew big time. I'm not sure with these if it's just the leaves and seeds or the bark too.
There are also lots of poisonous plants, especially in the garden, but of those in woods, giant hogweed (in that it causes the skin to blister), nightshade, foxglove (but sheep tend to ignore it), ragwort, ivy - in large amounts, otherwise it's a bit of a tonic, oleander, euphorbia. Oak can be a problem if a sheep eats loads of acorns, not because it's poisonous but because it blocks the rumen. For pigs, acorns were a traditional forage.
I think Japanese knotweed is also poisonous, at least to pigs, although they help root it out.
It would be good to find out a definitive list of plants poisonous to all livestock, with an indication of what they do. Anyone good at online research?
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I'm pretty sure thats what it is. at the minute its all started to bud up. today and yesterday were like spring days here but its raining again now. some of it is the size of a small house. almost like a big dome. when you climb inside its almost hollow with loads of twisty branches along the floor and then up and around.
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Sounds just like it, so highly poisonous.
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That's definitely Rhodies!
There's quite a bit round here in our part of Derbyshire, really noticeable in the spring and early summer with its big pink flowers.
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out of curriosity how mature would a tree need to be before protection needs to come off? I've got some decent oaks and ash in the fields but all are about 8-foot dia so big old things... I want to plant perhaps a dozen more, to replace these (they are all old veterans and droping bits).....
Would 10 years be sufficient time of protection?
I know sycamores, maples etc are a no go, as Ive seen sheep go for the sugary sap so will go even on old ones, but howabouts other tree species?
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Regarding Rhododendron. We had 3 sheep escape thanks to a kind walker and they all ate some thing out of the neighbours plant collection. They were all dribbling from the mouth, stood hunched and making some absolutely horrendous noises when we got home. They were all bloated so we treated them for that as at that point we didn't know they had been out. But they all did something I have never seen a sheep do before and that is vomit, and I mean projectile 10 pints comedy TV style vomit. All anyone I asked could suggest to me was that it would be Rhododendron. One went down that night in the rain and never got up again. One went down the next morning and looked emaciated by the time it eventually got up the after a day and a half and the other one never once went down. She staggered and swayed, looked dead on her feet but never gave in. Both of those have now seemingly recovered 100%. The one that died was the biggest and best ewe we had, a massive thick set Suffolk, and also the greediest so I am guessing she ate the most. The neighbour doesn't think they had any Rhododendron, and there is certainly nothing obvious on investigation, but that is what the dead one had eaten, and not much of it either so it doesn't take much to kill even a big strong ewe. The vomit from one of the living ones had one tiny leaf in it. That is it. Horrible stuff to sheep.
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out of curriosity how mature would a tree need to be before protection needs to come off? I've got some decent oaks and ash in the fields but all are about 8-foot dia so big old things... I want to plant perhaps a dozen more, to replace these (they are all old veterans and droping bits).....
Would 10 years be sufficient time of protection?
I know sycamores, maples etc are a no go, as Ive seen sheep go for the sugary sap so will go even on old ones, but howabouts other tree species?
I'm not an expert, but I think trees need to be a lot bigger than 10 yrs before their bark is no longer attractive to sheep. Oaks in particular grow very slowly, although it does depend a bit where you are. I think the trunks would need to have grown their thick corky bark before the sheep lost interest. Incidentally, oaks spend a third of their lives growing, a third being mature, and a third dying. I think the total can be somewhere like 1000-1500 years, so even at 8' diameter they might not be old enough to be dying (they must be magnificent trees though...envy envy 8)). Oaks naturally have lots of dieback of branches, and whole big limbs can come down, but the tree itself will survive to regrow those limbs. So don't give up on the oldies, but wonderful to plant young trees to create a succession :tree: :tree:
I would think ash would need to be bigger before its bark was unattractive to sheep, but ash grows much more quickly than oak. Source your stock carefully because of ash dieback disease - I think they are breeding up from trees which have shown no tendency to get the disease, but I don't know if they're available to buy yet.
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I was going to get my young trees from the bramble/brashy bits near the trees and in the field edges so any should be local - It would be nice to leave some replacements though, Id expect a couple of the trees to be gone in the next few years ---- so nice to start getting ahead of that.
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what I've used effectively to protect our trees is a length of perforated land drainage(the flexible coiled stuff). We cut a length to suit and slit it length ways to go round the trunk and hold it in place if needs be with rubber ties. this will open up to the growth of the tree. Seems to stop the sheep and the goats for that matter.