cattle and other livestock

Cattle tend to eat around the clumps of daffodils but I would guess that their four chamber stomach will kill most daffodil seeds. Then you have a whole host of other species of livestock with different diets or different types of digestive systems and some of these produce fertilizer in pelletized forms of various sizes that are scattered around rather than piled up in one spot. You can also see that some of these animals have completely wiped out entire species of plants in this field. Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas

1 comment for “cattle and other livestock

  1. Hello everyone
    Being of rural New Zealand born and bred farming stock, I couldn’t let this fascinating topic go without comment! Thanks for the pics Keith – made me feel right at home at Daffnet!!
    So here’s a little tale concerning more bull and a testimony to the hardy daffodil.
    One autumn a very long time ago, I had just finished planting my new bulbs. They were in the best soil in the garden which was still soft from cultivation and planting. The garden was visited in the night by our 5 year old very well grown bull. If you’ve ever had a cow step on your toe you will know they are rather heavy – treble that at least for a bull. He wandered through the daffodil patch and what was left behind (as well as Keith’s proverbial bull pat) were 12-18 inch depressions under which the newly planted bulbs languished. No I didn’t lift and replant them – I’m not that keen. In the springtime up they all came, beautiful strong foliage and despite them having to spend more energy to travel a foot further than usual to the light, their flowering was unaffected. Lifting time three years later was a little more tedious – we almost had to dig a double trench but the moral of this story is daffodils, like us daffodil enthusiasts, are never put off by a load of old bull.
    Cheers Noeline McLaren New Zealand
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