Archives: September 2010

28 Sep 2010, Comments (0)

Cows Eat Musk/Nodding Thistle (Carduus Nutans)

Author: kvoth

This 2004 trainee has eaten all the flowers from this musk thistle plant and is moving on to the lower leaves.

My weed-eating cows have been training themselves to eat Musk Thistle since I first taught a cow to eat a weed.  In 2004, my Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site trainees first learned to eat Canada thistle, leafy spurge and spotted knapweed.  They started eating musk thistle as soon as I put them in pasture.  When I trained 110 pairs to eat Canada thistle at the Jumping Horse Ranch near Ennis, Montana, they added musk thistle to their diet too.  So why would they decide to eat it?  And how much do they eat? (more…)

14 Sep 2010, Comments (0)

The Economics of Cows Eating Weeds

Author: kvoth

Cash Cow? Yes, because she's a weed-eating cow

When I started teaching cows to eat weeds, I thought everyone would see what I saw:  an economical alternative for weed management.  If cows eat weeds, you don’t have to spend money on herbicide or buy fuel for spray rigs or mowers.  You don’t have to rent goats.  And if you’re not interested in management intensive grazing, you don’t have to buy fencing equipment and set up any fences to get the cows to trample or eat the weeds.  They just roam through pastures as they always do, adding weeds to their diets.

Still, just because that’s what I see, doesn’t mean it’s obvious to everyone.  I could even be wrong!  So I consulted some economists and I asked ranchers I’d worked with what they thought.  Then I put it all together in a video to share with folks who want to know.  Click here to see the video on Youtube, or read on for a summary of what my consultants and ranchers told me. (more…)

  • Kathy Voth, Livestock for Landscapes

  • Kathy Voth, Livestock for Landscapes

  • Website: livestockforlandscapes.com
  • In 2004, I developed a method for training cows to eat weeds in as little as 10 hours over 10 days. The training process is just a matter of understanding how animals choose what to eat and applying some simple behavioral principles. Now the cattle I train eat every bit as much variety as my goats ever did and they do it without all the hassle of fencing. I use this blog to share information about what I learn as I continue to train cows and manage them to improve rancher profitability and landscape sustainability.
  • YouTube: kathyvoth