Native trees for chickens, goats and a pasture, and the trees that poison stock

Bur oak, swamp chestnut oak and pecan are native shade trees for a pasture. Red mulberry planted over a chicken run drops fruit from June, hogs relish ripe persimmons, and goats eat tree leaves cut as fodder. The trees to keep from stock are wild cherries with wilted leaves, red maple, black locust, buckeyes, yews and the evergreen laurels. Fence every young tree until it grows above the animals’ reach.

Shade and shelter in a pasture

Silvopasture is grazing livestock on the same land as trees, with the trees, the forage and the animals managed together. Cattle do best between 41 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit. They prefer a tree’s shade to a shed’s, and the leaves cool the air around them as they give off water.

In Kentucky research, shade lowered beef cattle’s core temperature by as much as 1.4 degrees and raised daily gains by up to 1.25 pounds in summer heat. Shade spread across a pasture also keeps a herd from crowding onto one spot and wearing it out. Trees go in blocks, clusters or single and multiple rows. The spacing between trees or rows is left wide enough for haying equipment. Southern pine silvopastures are planted at 100 to 400 trees an acre.

These natives we grow make a pasture’s shade:

• Bur oak, for a pasture where its broad crown of heavy limbs has room to spread. Zones 3 to 9, 60 to 80 feet.
• Swamp chestnut oak, for low ground that stays damp, called cow oak because cows eat its acorns. Zones 4 to 9, 60 to 90 feet.
• Pecan, for a bottomland field, where cattle graze in its shade. Zones 5 to 9, 70 to 100 feet.
• Longleaf pine, one of the three southern pines that suit forage and grazing when well managed. Zones 7 to 10, 60 to 120 feet.

Fruit, nuts and pods that fall for stock

These natives we grow drop food that stock eat:

• Red mulberry, whose fruit ripens from June to August, falls when fully ripe and has been fed to hogs and chickens. Zones 4 to 9, 35 to 50 feet.
• American persimmon, whose fruit hogs relish, though it is of little value to other stock and can sicken horses. Zones 4 to 9, 35 to 60 feet.
• Pignut hickory, whose nuts the settlers left to the hogs, since the kernel is sweet on one tree and bitter on the next. Zones 4 to 9, 50 to 80 feet.

Early settlers turned pigs into the woods to grub for acorns. Acorns and young oak leaves poison cattle and sheep more often than other stock. Keep a herd out of oak woods in a heavy acorn fall, give more feed while the oaks bud, and rake up fallen acorns where you can.

Honeylocust, which we do not grow, is planted into pastures and hayfields for pods that cattle and hogs eat readily. Cattle do not digest the seeds, so the pods feed them best ground, while sheep digest the seeds too.

Tree leaves as fodder for goats, sheep and cattle

In the early 18th century, farmers in the colonies and in Canada fed the dried and green leaves of striped maple to their cattle in winter. In a Maine trial of the old practice, cattle, sheep and goats were fed silage made from the leaves of field-edge trees and shrubs. The trees were coppiced or pollarded on cycles of 3 to 8 years. Fresh leaves of American basswood carried the most protein, 19.4 percent, within the 15 to 25 percent expected of good forage.

Leaves can carry alkaloids, tannins and cyanide compounds. Fermenting them as silage usually breaks these down. Large amounts are not for horses or poultry, which lack a rumen.

Goats tolerate bitter, tannin-rich browse, and oak’s tannins harm them less than they harm cattle and sheep. Variety is their protection:

“Goats are often not affected by poisonous compounds or anti-nutritional factors if a sufficient number of other plant species are available.” (Langston University, Agricultural Research and Extension Programs, Poisonous plants)

The exceptions are yew, azalea and rhododendron, whose clippings goats should never be given. Wilted wild cherry leaves are dangerous to goats too.

Trees and shrubs for a flock of chickens

Chickens descend from the jungle fowl, a forest bird that forages on the ground and rests in trees. Laying hens and broilers still prefer a range with overhead cover. Branches deter hawks and other predatory birds, and trees and bushes give a flock somewhere to hide.

In a Virginia Tech study of broiler chickens, more birds ranged outdoors when trees gave them overhead cover than on open grass, and they roamed farther from the house. Shade also brings more of a flock outside on hot, sunny days. A red mulberry over the run gives both shade and summer fruit. Keep black locust out of the run, since its bark, leaves and seeds poison poultry.

The trees that poison stock, by animal and season

The danger from these trees peaks at a few times: wilted leaves after a storm or frost, the first shoots of spring, a heavy acorn fall and the seeds of autumn. We do not grow red maple or boxelder. A blank cell means no source we read names that animal, which is not the same as safe.

Black locust, and the danger after a storm

Black locust is the tree the sources split on. Veterinary lists name its bark, leaves and seeds as poisonous to every grazing animal, horses most of all, yet goats and sheep are fed it overseas:

“Though often considered poisonous to livestock, black locust is grown in some areas specifically as livestock forage.” (USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System, Robinia pseudoacacia)

Where horses or a flock graze, treat it as the poison those lists call it. After a storm, clear any fallen cherry or red maple limb before stock go back in, since wilted leaves are the most dangerous. The signs of cherry, oak, buckeye, walnut and yew poisoning are set out in which native nuts and fruit poison dogs, horses and children. A sick animal is a veterinarian’s case: call one at once and say which tree it reached.

Keeping stock off a young tree

Livestock browse young trees, chew their bark and trample the soil over their roots. In an Iowa drought, bur oaks in pastured woods were injured even on sheltered sites, while unpastured stands on dry slopes came through, because trampling had cut the air to their roots. Hungry, mineral-short or wormy animals are the likeliest to damage trees. Heavy browsing can point to a gap in the feed. Stock usually harm broadleaf trees more than conifers.

Keep grazing off a new planting for its first two or three years, until the top bud stands above the animals’ reach of 6 to 8 feet. Cut the grass for hay meanwhile. Where stock must graze, guard each tree until it grows above chewing height, with an electric fence, a tree shelter or a rigid mesh tube. Horses chew bark whether a tree is poisonous or not.

Circle a pasture tree’s trunk with a fence set just beyond the reach of an outstretched neck. Never wrap the trunk in chicken wire or snow fence, which horses chew loose into a hazard for their eyes, teeth and legs.

Deer, rabbits and voles need guards of their own, set out in protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels. Every tree Blue Whale Trees sells leaves the nursery small enough to need such guards for its first few years. A thorny hedge planted as a fence for stock is the subject of a living fence of native thorny shrubs.

Where to start

Start from what your animals need:

• Shade for a herd: the tree finder lists the large trees we grow for full sun. Check each against the table above before it goes where stock graze.
• Fruit and nuts for stock and for you: native fruit and nut trees sets out when the fruit and nut trees we grow start to bear, and which need a partner.
• A tree you cannot name: our support page takes questions about a tree you have, with photos.

Common questions

What trees are best for a chicken run?

Trees and shrubs that cast overhead cover, since chickens range farther under branches and hide there from hawks. A red mulberry adds summer shade and fruit the birds eat. Keep black locust out, as its bark, leaves and seeds poison poultry.

What trees are poisonous to goats?

Wild cherries with wilted leaves, black locust, buckeyes, yews, mountain laurel, rhododendrons and azaleas all poison goats. Goats tolerate oak’s tannins, and plenty of other browse protects them from many bitter plants. Never give them yew, azalea or rhododendron clippings.

What trees are poisonous to cattle?

Wilted wild cherry leaves can kill cattle within 15 minutes of the first signs, and oak buds, young leaves and acorns poison cattle more often than other stock. Buckeye shoots and seeds, black locust and yew poison them too.

What is silvopasture?

Silvopasture is grazing livestock among trees, with the trees, the forage and the animals managed together on the same land. Pasture grows between trees set in rows, clusters or blocks. Young trees are kept from the stock until they grow above its reach.