In this day and age where our animals are often fenced efficiently with post and rail, netting or electric fence when they are out and can spend long periods housed in winter little chance is given for them to browse for foods other than grasses in hedges and rough areas.
I have noticed that ours have spent a good deal of time with their heads in the hedges ever since their arrival several months ago. It isn't that they have been hungry we have plenty of grass and hay is always on offer, plus a little hard feed.
At first it seemed to be the remainder of the vetches that they were dragging out of the hedge bottoms and off the banks.
More recently as winter is upon us our 3 have gone out by day and I have noticed that for a few minutes on thier way out they will strip the leaves from the ivy on the garden wall and then find some in the field, either on a tree or the heifer prefers to find the young shoots at the base of the fence, only for a few minutes then they go off and graze. Does anyone know why, are they lacking something? Is it high in a particular trace element of some kind? Why when they go out? Could it be because they have just had a feed of cake?
Before we purchased our Dexters we were told they browsed more than other cattle. Maybe they need to/ or at least really like to.
Has anyone else noticed them eating ivy regularly?
Ours love to browse. We have a small wooded area in our field and, as well as ivy, they eat the leaves off the trees and brambles. They will strip the bark off young trees such as roan, willow and, unfortunately for us, our sweet chestnut which we thought we'd properly secured. I've heard bark stripping can be a sign of phosphorus deficiency during late pregnancy in cows, but it is the bull that seemed to enjoy this the most.
We have a larger wood adjacent to the field and allow them winter access to parts of that. It's a natural habitat for them and they very much enjoy being within it.
We used to put our Dexters in a small wooded area containing about 6 different varieties of trees, oak, ash, conifers, beech, others. They never touched any of them. Then we accidentally let some of our Lleyn sheep in, who immediately started stripping the bark. After that, if we put Dexters back in they licked and scraped the stripped areas. Presumably after the sap? Now that time has past and the stripped areas have dried up, we seem to be able to let the Dexters back in, but we've only tried a few and dare not leave them because we need those trees.
Do Dexters strip the bark off trees normally? I ask, because I'm trying to get rights to an adjacent woods to let my herd in there in during bad weather.
I have a small wooded area that is unfenced from a particular field and they do spend time in there and any leaves etc that they can reach are stripped but they have never damaged any of the trees.
A field that I took over last year has a really nice mixed species hedge that is close to 4 metres thick on one side and the owner did not want me to fence it (easier to keep tidy with the hedge cutter), It looked pretty stock proof. Although there was plenty of grass in the field within days I had animals on the bye way on the other side of the hedge. I put some old hurdles in the hedge where they had broken through but they just moved to another part and created another hole. I eventually had to move the cattle out and fence the hedge as in places I could almost drive my truck through the gaps that they had created. Worst of all they ate all the nuts before they where ready for picking and I was so looking forward to enjoying those myself.
Martin. Medway Valley Dexters.
We're outwintering ours in a paddock plus field shelter and a section of an adjoining wood. In my experience more mature tree where the bark is hard are undamaged. Young trees, where the bark is smooth and softer, can and do get the bark stripped. This happened to a roan of around 2 inches in diameter, some willow trees of up to 3 inches in diameter. And the blighters got through the deer defences to strip a sweet chestnut sapling, 1 inch diameter, of its bark.
Nevertheless, outwintering in a wood, if one is available, I think is a good idea provided you keep an eye open for acorns and rhododendrons.
I have nothing scientific to back this up, but I have read on the internet about ivy being used as a general "pick-me-up" for livestock and apparently the Romans used it as winter feed for their cattle.
It is the Shetland sheep that go for the ivy here! I do ration ivy as in quantity it is not good but it is medicinal
Ash is also medicinal and very good for everything that ails 'em
Saffy, you have lots of grass but at this time of year it is very poor quality, regardless of its colour but our little cattle like different things and certainly browse
Your pictures are lovely
Jo
Clive
I didn't know you had Lleyn Sheep! We also have them and have been very pleased with them. We are now crossing them with a Texel tup and getting some lovely lambs -just when the price crashed!
Only problem is multiple births. Our record is six of which 5 survived. We are scanning tomorrow and dreading what we will find! out of 20 ewes we will expect a couple of quads, perhaps 7 or 8 triplets and the rest twins. And perhaps a five up just for variety.
We're doing our LLeyn's in two batches. We just done 25 and had one triple, and the rest were singles and doubles about equally. We feed the doubles and triples and the lambs are cracking. The ewe with triples has kept them all so far (2 weeks) without any problem.
The next lot (April) we have 110 and have just had them scanned. We have 1 quin, 4 quads, 10 triples, and again lots of doubles and singles. We are pedigree and all our tups are from lines that produce slightly lower lambing rates. I think we've hit 180% this year (with second timers) instead of the more normal 200%.
They're nice sheep and we're very pleased with them.
Ours have decimated the frangipanis (they're supposed to be poisonous but our dexters have read that book), eaten the orchids, roses, palms, plus all the rubbishy bits of pasture that nothing else really likes.
They have a few bits off the jacaranda, poinciana and stone fruit trees... and they have a go at some of the bark on certain native trees, but unlike the alpacas they leave my favourite shrub alone. :D
I'm in awe of their browsing and it really stood by our guys over winter with some of the larger breeds around us not looking as good at the end of winter as our did.
My husband used to get furious with the Dexters (and the Shetlands) because they kill trees as long as the bark is fairly soft. I finally put my foot down and insisted that the cows had a right to the fenced portion of forest as it only accounts for less than half of the woods (about a 5 acre paddock). They only spend winter days in there so by next fall, there is a "forest" of thistles awaiting them in the open areas. I'm sure that they get all sorts of minerals from their browse and they certainly get some good exercise.
PS Shetlands have two teats! I dread triplets and luckily don't see them too often.
