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Chokecherry trees

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I have a question about chokecherry trees.. I had an old fellow tell me that green chokecherry leaves are highly poisonous to sheep or cows...He was wondering about my cows grazing the creekbottom where there are chokecherry trees and how I hadn't had any problems....Told me a story of an old sheepherder taking a nap in a clump of chokecherry trees and when he woke up- there were 5 dead sheep....From my old sheep experiences, I told him I figured he must have just looked at them wrong and they dropped over from general principles... :wink:

Anyway I have never heard of this- and never had any problems altho usually its later in the year before I have to let the cows to the springs on the creek...

Anyone else have any experience or knowledge of chokecherry trees causing a problem?
 
We are always told them same thing about black cherry trees around here but I have seen cows and sheep take big mouth fulls of them. They say they are at their worst after a late frost wilts them or if a tree is taken out by a storm... I have heard of nightmare, a hand full of leaves fall into a tank and 20 cows die and stuff like that but I have never seen it or known anyone personaly who has had a problem (I have heard people talk about a cousins friends' neighbor whose vet told him that his collegue had seen it but that is the extent).

I had a choice, I could either chop down a whole grove of trees, fence them out of the shade not use a 36 acre pasture or roll the dice after my vet told me he didn't think it should be much of a problem. AFter many near heart attacks when I saw my cows browsing on them and expecting them to keal over right in front of me I don't really worry about it, maybe if we were real short of grass over there...

I believe the problem is the leaves contain cyanide so that is what the poisoning is...
 
Here in the south....if the trees/leaves are still green then the leaves WILL NOT hurt the cattle.

BUT...if the leaves wither/wilt...that's when they become lethal.
 
I am like the rest of you, have heard how bad they can be. However I have them in the fall and early winter pastures and have never had a problem with them. We ran sheep here for years when I was a kid and we never lost one to them. I've been back home for 25 years and no problems.
 
Well thats the first I've EVER heard of chokecherry trees being bad for cattle :???: Gregs family has raised cattle and horses along the chokecherry tree infested Battle River for close to a hundred years with no such problam.....the only problam I've ever had with chokecherrys,is making enough jam and syrup to last the year.
 
I did some googling- and apparently they can be poisonous-- at least to horses...Everything I found so far is on horse sites...Apparently the leaves produce cyanide and will kill horses rapidly if dumb enough to eat them-- that would explain sheep eating them :roll: :lol: Guess you learn something new every day...

Most horse people know that the Wild Black Cherry tree is toxic, but Chokecherry and Peach trees should also be isolated and removed from pastureland. Cherry and Peach trees that yield white or pink flowers and fleshy fruits such as the cherries and peaches are the most dangerous. Two cherry trees that are native to Ohio are the Wild Black Cherry tree and the Chokecherry tree. The Wild Black grows mainly along fencerows and in woodlands. The Chokecherry tree can grow as a large shrub or a small tree and is more common in northern Ohio. The typical form of poisoning is when horses ingest the wilted leaves or if ingested in hay. If eaten, poisoning occurs immediately and death can come in less than one hour.

Heres another site about poisonous plants that says about the same, but goes into the scientific explanation:


http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/PoisonousPlants.html
 
I just looked at Merck Vet manual and they say chokecherries can be poisonous to all grazing animals- even if baled up in a bale... Sounds like you just find them dead with symptoms of cyanide poisoning- can only make a true diagnosis by looking at stomach contents for leaf and stem parts....

My wife just reminded me about the year the kids practice goats stripped every chokecherry we had down to the bare stems- which indicates conditions have to be right- or you couldn't kill those goats whatever you feed them :wink:
 
My neighbors and I have them and never have had a problem, maybe :lol: our grass is just toooo tempting.
 
Same here,like I said,cattle and horses on summer pasture at river FULL of chokecherry trees...NEVER lost ONE to chokecherry trees
 
OT-

I ve heard the same as you but we have never had a problem with it and there are lots of chokecherriy trees in our pastures. IT might kill them if that is all they had to eat but I think when they have grass it wont hurt them. We havent lost any yet to them.
 
Not sure if you were being serious about the chokecherry and milk Tibbs...but the best jelly in the world is made with Chokecherrys,my children grew up with toast,jelly and milk for breakfast.sooooo,NOT true story.
 
It weren't me!!!! Was my oldest kiddo when he was about 3 years old. LOL he was stayin with Great Granny, for the afternoon, I went to get him, (ya know how granny's are, ya can have anything ya want) Well, I was not told there'd been pickle juice drank...and he asked for a glass of milk. I wasn't in a hurry so sat down to visit with Granny. Weren't very long here he come runnin and had the most pitiful look on his face......he was sickkkkkkkkkkkkkk. Pickle juice will clabber milk real quick......
 
I have been told that the poison in chokecherries only accumilates in the pits(seeds). I don't remember if it is cyanide or strichnine. But a person or a bovine would have to eat a $shitload of pits for it to be toxic.At least that is what I was told. I've seen bears and coyotes pigging out on chokecherries late in the fall and never seen a dead one under a chokecherry bush...... but they probably pass the seeds.

Chokecherries also make the best pancake syrup ever, decent jelly and really crappy wine. :)
 
TimH said:
I have been told that the poison in chokecherries only accumilates in the pits(seeds). I don't remember if it is cyanide or strichnine. But a person or a bovine would have to eat a $shitload of pits for it to be toxic.At least that is what I was told. I've seen bears and coyotes pigging out on chokecherries late in the fall and never seen a dead one under a chokecherry bush...... but they probably pass the seeds.

Chokecherries also make the best pancake syrup ever, decent jelly and really crappy wine. :)
Click to expand...
Are you saying the wine was crappy because it was made by Hutterites and you REALLY don't remember if it was good or not :p
 
Chokecherry leaves and pits, do sometime contain a cyanide type substance that can cause prussic acid poisoning, the same posioning as the sorghums and sudangrass. Concentration must not be very high as I have never heard of much livestock poisoning. To be on the side, take about the same precaution as you would when grazing sudangrass. Some conditions, like maybe a late spring frost, then a regrowth of leaves might be bad. The Native Americans would pound the cokeberry fruit pits and all to make wasna. Some still do. Must not be posionous. I have been told that deer will eat the wild plum fruits but not chokeberry, that is not true as sometimes chokecherry seeds can be seen in deer droppings.
 
Tim have you ever tried dandylion wine that the hutterites make. Heard it was wicked stuff... if your car runs outta gas dump a jug of that stuff in and its as good as rocket fuel..... :)
 

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