Hi ,I just wanted to know if wild cherry trees and tocic to cattle If you can help thanks

-- Vince R. (Dove@epix.net), March 15, 2002

Answers

Yes, they are. Especially dead dried branches and leaves. I know a farmer who lost two calves because they ate cherry tree branches. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), March 15, 2002.

Wild cherries are sometimes referred to as choke cherries. And with good reason. Harmless to humans, ( they make the most wonderful jelly) but toxic to animals.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.

can goats eat them?

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), March 15, 2002.

Have hundreds of wild cherrys on my place with cattle having full access. Only toxic is the leaves in a wilted state. Danger is, for example, a tree or limb blows down in a storm and cattle come along and eat the wilted leaves. Dry, they are harmless. Cattle don't care for dry leaves anyway.

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.

Ditto Don's post.

It is wilted leaves that are the principle danger...which contain a form of cyanide more or less. My cattle licked up the dried leaves in the fall along with the maples and everything else and no problems. When the wind blew down a cherry into the pasture, I fenced it off until it was leafless or until I could cut it up. Never lost anything to one. Not sure about the goats either, I kept mine away from the cherries.

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), March 15, 2002.

it is my understanding that an animal would have to eat aprox. 1% of it's body weight for the leaves to do any damage. but a year or two there were a lot of foals were miscarried after a bad winter, when the mares chewed on the bark of the wild cherry trees.

-- ed (mkwrth@frsb.net), March 15, 2002.

Yes wilted cherry will kill goats too! Goats eat like crazy and it doesn't take much to put them over the top on something like that! Darlene

-- Darlene in W WA (tomdarsavy@cs.com), March 15, 2002.

Are there other shrubs and trees that are toxic to horses and cattle?

-- Edie (lucricausa@highland.net), March 15, 2002.

Members of the Taxus genus like Yews are toxic as I recall, although I never had any cattle get near them to have first hand knowledge.

oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), March 16, 2002.

I was told that cherry blossoms in the spring can be toxic also.

-- Wayne H. (wharsh@acsworld.net), March 16, 2002.