[Remy]

The weather has been the worst I've known it and the field the ewes are in has had it's grass all eaten down.  I do feed them haylage but they are also pushing into my hawthorn hedge and stripping the bark off it, quite severely in places.  Is it likely to die where they have done this?

[Foobar]

If they strip the bark all the way around a branch then that branch will die.  I would give them more to eat, as I think they are telling you they want more! or move them.

[Yeoman]

Hawthorn is amazingly resilient - just look at how vigorously it comes back after being 'laid'.  In laying a hedge the main trunk is cut almost all the way through so that it can be leant over.  Despite this treatment laid hawthorn survives and thrives.
 
That said, Foobar is absolutely right, most trees hate loosing their bark as disease can easily be introduced.
 
So my thought would be to 'prune' what you have left as hard as you dare to give your hedge the best chance. 
 
The hedge will be dormant this time of year and not playing host to nesting birds so now is the time to do it.

[Anke]

If their haylage is gone by lunchtime I would feed them more, also do they have a lick in their field?
 
You could also collect and chuck branches into their field - mine love some willow branches, also some ivy (leaves but no flowers/berries) ro even pine branches. They are also likely to be bored... so branches gives them somethign to do.
 
Other feeds (if you do not want to give them too high a protein diet) would be soaked sugar beet shreds.

[in the hills]

Our Soay tend to strip the bark from trees in our hedges quite a lot in the winter. They have hay ad-lib,  red lick buckets and a sprinkle of coarse mix ... but .... still strip bark. I guess that they are looking for additional minerals/nutrition that they know that they need.


They have done this every year but so far the hedges seem unaffected ...... they are old and well established though. May be different if your hedge is not mature.

[Remy]

They have plenty of haylage and also a general purpose lick, and the hedge is a very mature one.  The horses also eat the hawthorn but tend to eat small twigs, so I guess there is something in it they like? 

[kumquat]

Our Soay tend to strip the bark from trees in our hedges quite a lot in the winter. They have hay ad-lib,  red lick buckets and a sprinkle of coarse mix ... but .... still strip bark. I guess that they are looking for additional minerals/nutrition that they know that they need.


They have done this every year but so far the hedges seem unaffected ...... they are old and well established though. May be different if your hedge is not mature.

Same here.... word for word....good old Soays

[Cazzie]

Hi Remy
We had a lovely mixed hedge with about six different shrubs before we had our sheep, they gradually ate the hedge to the point that only the hawthorn was left, albeit just the main stems and wherever they couldn't reach...it looked so bad after a few years that we decided to fence it off...expensive 

[Remy]

Oh dear!     Fortunately I have good stock fencing the other side of the hedge but would be very sad to lose the hedge itself 

[woollyval]

You must fence off the hedge! Actually it dosent take much to do this temporarily as you can use road pins and stock wire! However hawthorne is not any animals first choice of feed and I feel they are not getting enough to eat! If you feed ad lib haylage and the feeder is always full they will not eat your hawthorne hedges! Have you got more than 4-5 sheep max to the acre? is it a mud bath? if so too many sheep 

[colliewoman]

Dunno whether quality may be an issue, my guys refuse point blank to eat the haylage that is on offer around here. How long is it taking them to eat up a bale? If more than 3 or 4 days they probably wont want it if there is tasty hedge on offer