Neighbor's cow eating our hedge

[m32825]

My neighbor got a couple cows to keep the grass in his field under control. We had no problems for a year or so, but recently one of them has started eating our Camelia hedge. The hedge has been growing for 20 years, and now in the space of a week there's a hole in the middle of it!



Why did the cow start eating our hedge (the other one leaves it alone) and what can we do to get it to stop? Thanks!

-- Carl

 

[greeno]

Sounds like BBQ time.

I got no patience for neighbors who can’t keep their animals in check. Sorry llama lady.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ehenry]

Cows are smart.....sounds like something a hot load of .410 bird shot or maybe even .22 rat shot might fix with one dose. I'd try .22 rat shot first.

 

[Lil Foot]

Handload of 12ga rock salt in the rear worked for us back in the day.

 

[bradmond]

Electric fence?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Why did the cow start eating our hedge (the other one leaves it alone) and what can we do to get it to stop? Thanks!

Probably not enough food in the field for them to eat, a lot of people assume if it's green (weeds) that cows will eat it, they won't.

An electric fencer and some wires will stop them from getting to it to eat it.

 

[sagor]

Without making steak or burgers from them, try blending a lot of Cayenne pepper (or hotter peppers if you can find it), with some water and spray the hedge with the mixture. Unless the cows have "mexican tastes", they may not like the spicy flavor of the hedge. The mixture should not hurt the plant either, though to be sure, try it on a small section first....

 

[Daren Todd]

Without making steak or burgers from them, try blending a lot of Cayenne pepper (or hotter peppers if you can find it), with some water and spray the hedge with the mixture. Unless the cows have "mexican tastes", they may not like the spicy flavor of the hedge. The mixture should not hurt the plant either, though to be sure, try it on a small section first....

Take the peppers, seeds and all, run it through a blender till it's really fine. The hotter the peppers the better. Add to a gallon of water. Boil for 20 minutes or so on the stove. Strain it through some cheese cloth or an old thick sock to remove the pulp. Pour water in a sprayer and go to town.

It's a cheap bug and critter repellant for your garden as well.

NOTE: Caution needs to be taken while handling the liquid since your pretty much making pepper spray

 

[CaveCreekRay]

What Daren said!

I had to get pepper sprayed in the eyes for posse training.

Imagine a burn in your eyes so bad you can't catch your breath and you feel like you are going to hurl. It goes away in about fifteen minutes after washing your eyes out with milk.

 

[Creature Meadow]

I have a deer problem in my garden and found if I dump a bottle of Cayeene pepper in a sprayer and spray my garden. No ill effects on mature plants but young plants don't like it, bout killed my okra that was a foot tall.

After spraying beans the deer left it alone until the rains came then resprayed works great and cheap.

 

[D2Cat]

Might contact the owner of the cattle. He ought to be the one to install a hot wire on his side back a few feet to protect your hedge.

Just like North Idaho Wolfman said, they eat it because it's food they don't have elsewhere. Those leaves are tasty, high protein supplement about now.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Same reason Mule Deer eat sagebrush. No edible forage. Time for your neighbor / farmer to put out hay

 

[m32825]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My neighbor and I are generally on pretty good terms, but neither of us has an extensive background with cattle. He has been responsive about putting up fencing to protect the part of the hedge that's getting picked on, but it's a 300 foot long hedge. I'm trying to figure out what to do if another section starts getting picked on.

It's weird that for the last year and a half or so neither cow showed any interest in the hedge but all the sudden one of them started picking on it. The one that's been behaving itself is a heifer about 5 years old. The one that's acting up is a year-and-a-half old bull. He has been in that pasture since he was born so it's not like he's never seen the hedge before.

My neighbor doesn't have any hay out for them, but we've still got green grass. I wonder if there is some nutrient or salt in the ornamental plant leaves that is not in the grass? I wonder if putting a salt block out would help?

I picked up a hotshot and will use it to negatively reinforce future hedge snacking.

-- Carl

 

[m32825]

I like the cayenne pepper suggestion but the hedge is so big that it would involve a lot of spraying. We also get pretty frequent rain showers here in Central Florida. I will keep that idea in mind though in case a specific section of the hedge seems to be getting picked on.

-- Carl

P.S. I've already let the owner know that my vote is that it's time for hamburger!

 

[John T]

Handload of 12ga rock salt in the rear worked for us back in the day.

works great for pumpkin smashing hooligans also...

 

[D2Cat]

Since you get along with the neighbor and neither of you have experience with cattle...yes he needs to have a mineral supplement and a salt block out for his livestock.

An electric fence is easy, quick and fairly inexpensive to install. You need some post like these. You can install that at any width you like. You could easily put the post 30' apart. Drive them in the ground with a sledge hammer, since you probably don't have a post driver. Put an insulator on each each post for the wire. For the wire and insulators just google "electric fence....wire or insulators, etc". If you're a long ways to a power outlet you can get a 12 volt fence charger that uses a auto battery. Have the charger and battery on your side of the hedge, covered from the weather with a bucket, plastic tub or something.

You can leave the fence up year around, or take it down as desired. Just bring in the charger when not in use, and be sure to keep the battery charged.

Your neighbor may have these supplies and just not motivated to use them.

https://www.ruralking.com/electric-...MI8Ifg_c_q3gIVl7rACh1WZQoZEAQYASABEgJ2zPD_BwE

 

[sheepfarmer]

Since there is a real fence to keep them in, you don't need too much expensive stuff to make a hot wire deterrant. Or at least what I've done works with horses. Cattle may need more zap to get them trained to look at the fence. If you have an electrical outlet nearby good. If not the battery powered solar ones work. For ease of installation the plastic step in posts and a single strand of polywire work. Easy to put up and then you can roll it back up when you want to take it down. TSC has a reasonable selection, and you could do the whole length of your hedge in half an hour. Follow the directions to make good connections and ground. Put duct tape 8 inch streamers on the wire to get them to look at it.

 

[D2Cat]

Sheepfarmer, you've got first hand experience with this and you live in the part of the country that gets good snows. OP is in Florida. You could take some time to get out of the cold, have a vacation, and solve his problem with some good coaching!!

 

[m32825]

Caught the neighbor's cow munching on our hedge this morning and introduced him to the hotshot. Might just be my imagination, but it looked like he decided to move to the other side of the field, as far from our hedge as possible.



My neighbor was out working on fence today and we talked a bit. He's got a mineral block for them. He doesn't like electric fences because he thinks they are dangerous. His plan is to put up chain link fencing all the way down our hedge so the cows can't get to it.

-- Carl

 

[sheepfarmer]

Holy cow 300ft of chain link cow high! That's a lot of work and expense. Well it should keep them off your camellias. I'd love a hedge like that, only seen them growing that way in Japan once. Not in my climate though. Photos?