[Farmboss64]

Anyone have any ideas of what to put around my one yr old trees so my livestock don’t eat them

[SallyintNorth]

Cage 1m+ across.  Fence post in each corner, stock fence around.

[Fleecewife]

We fence off the whole area we have planted up with new trees except for one copper beech - that is right in the middle of a pasture and ultimately will provide shelter for sheep to lie under. While it's establishing we have built a hexagonal 'pen' for it, 11 or 12 feet across, with a top rail, round stobs and sheep mesh.  This might seem excessive, but sheep can stretch a remarkably long way over the top of a fence  to rip off leaves, standing on their back legs and shoving hard.  It also provides space to plant wildflowers around the base.  Having lost trees in the past to both sheep and cattle (as well as rabbits, hares and voles) we would rather err on the side of wider separation than risk losing expensive plants.


You don't mention [member=212417]Farmboss64[/member] what livestock you have, nor how many trees, and whether the trees are within a grazing area or alongside one. That information would help us provide an appropriate answer.

[naturelovingfarmer]

People here usually use plastic drain tile cut into 2 ft lengths and split down one side. It keeps beavers from chewing on trees. If it's to keep off livestock, it'd have to be longer.

[Farmboss64]

I have sheep trees are in grazing area 20 of them

[Fleecewife]

I have sheep trees are in grazing area 20 of them

In that case, making hexagons as we have done would take a lot of the pasture area, so I suggest you make your shelters as big as you can, as Sally's suggestion, and as tall as you can, 5-6 feet. The sheep will still chew off the lower branches as the trees grow beyond and hanging over the protection, giving that parkland look!