[doganjo]

My son seems to think it was small deer, and that it was freshly done last night.  My front paddock only has 4 feet fencing round it.  The bark has been eaten completely up to a height of about a foot and a half.  So I don't expect the trees will survive.  The trees are all about 8 years old.   The pear tree and plum tree haven't been touched, but we didn't have time to put any protection round them so whatever animal it was may come back and do the sme to them.  They didn't touch the willow either.

If I plant more apple trees (I do have one in a big pot ready to plant out in the  spring)  I will put protectors on them.

Any deas on what it might have been?

[arobwk]

Any chance of a pic?

[devonlady]

Unless you have sheep getting into your garden I would be inclined to agree with your son

[doganjo]

Not sheep. lol

[Terry T]

That sounds very annoying... I’d be very grumpy if I was you. By 8 yrs old you expect the trees to stand up for themsekves a bit. Here sheep and deer do that sort of damage.

[Marches Farmer]

Muntjac?

[Possum]

I would have thought Muntjac deer, unless any geese can gain access. Geese love tree bark for some reason.

[Anke]

If it is from the bottom up - hares? do you have snow?

[Steph Hen]

What a shame. could they
regenerate from what's underground?

[Penninehillbilly]

Maybe too late now but I'm sure I read that if you wrap it (clingfilm?) that wluld give it a chance. Whether enough to be productive again would be debatable,  but 18" does sound a bit too much.
I wonder if it's worth stricking some cuttings off them? Wrong time of year for grafting?
Try spraying remaining plants with well diluted manure-water, keeps my goats from eating willow.

[Fleecewife]

Have you got snow cover?  We have found that rabbits and hares will stand on top of the snow and destroy trees, chewing an amazing amount of bark, up to higher than you would expect.  They can't get to the grass because of the snow.  Both can get over that height of fence.   I think apple bark is particularly popular with grazers.  Or muntjak as suggested if you have them.

[doganjo]

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas folks. 
We have no snow, just a couple of nights of hard frost. 

I do have rabbits but they aren't large and I've only ever seen a few at a time nibbling the grass.

I've never seen hares around here - we're just across the railway line from the village of Clackmannan, and there is a farm across the quite fast bypass.

There are probably deer in the small woodlands behind the farm. 

Two of the trees have been well stripped of bark all round from the ground up - to about 18 to 20 inches.  To be honest one had been pulled out of the ground a little by the wind and the apples were on the ground till I harvested. 

Thee trees had no names as I got all of them  from Morrisons supermarket when I moved down here in spring 2008, so not worth taking cuttings from.

I haven't been out today, but as of yesterday neither the pear (which is too near the top line of shrubs to do well anyway, so will probably be removed) and the plum (which fruited for the first time a couple of years ago but didn't have any this year) have been touched.  I'd be disappointed if the plum was attacked as it's fruit were delicious.

I was just curiou,s as it almost seemed so deliberate, and limited to the apples. My son gave me a Jonagold last year and it is presently in a large pot.  I was going to put it out in the front paddock but I'll make sure it has a tree wrap round it first. 

[Steph Hen]

If there's a bit at the bottom that's not ruined (even an inch or two) you could saw off the rest of the tree and graft on whichever varieties you want, even multiply up your new Jonagold and have several of them? Have a look on YouTube - I've never grafted anything but am planning to have a go and am planting lots of apple trees everywhere with the hope of one day grafting onto them. You may get suckers from the ground anyway
and could choose one of these to turn into a proper tree, I'd expect it to shoot up since it's coming from an established root system.

[Penninehillbilly]

I like that idea SH, ive done a little bit of grafting, practise on willow, i think it would be a form of budding to go on to a thicker rootstock. Shame to waste the rootstock.

[doganjo]

That's an idea, Steph Hen - never tried grafting, but I'll look on YouTube. One tree is pulled well out of the ground (high winds earlier in the year) but another is OK, although it consists mainly of suckers already as the central stem got broken down when they were newly planted a few years ago.  I think they may be OK