Sheldon Nicholson wrote:
So can cows live off of a diet of trees as healthilly as if it were grass?
Yes, but some trees are better than others. You can't give them wilted cherry leaves or most maples.
I've found they prefer what's "new." I think that's why it's pretty easy to move them because they are ready to move to new areas.
Check out the video in
this thread.
Bill Mollison:
"Cattle have a place. Cattle are forest animals. They are not pasture animals. You have to chase them out on to pastures. Really, cattle belong in cool forest swamplands. They love it. In summer, they spend all their time up to their bellies out in swamps, eating the swamp grasses. In winter they will come back into the forest edges.
That is where we got them from. That was their habit--the white ox of the forests of northern Europe. We are talking here of beef cattle. Dairy cattle are much more highly evolved than most beef cattle."
There is truth in that because during every drought
my neighbors cattle (dairy cows!!!) find a break in the fence & come to my property to swim in my pond. For real, I've seen this!