Pineywoods Cattle under Observation at Usm's Lake Thoreau

It may not be a sight most of us are used to seeing in a pine forest, but sometime ago it was. If you've talked to any landowner over 80 years old, they're going to tell you stories of what they called the wood's cows that kept the forests cool. In the 40s and 50s we started breeding larger, more beef, cattle. And these cows kind of went out of favor. As fewer farmers had piney woods cattle grazing the forest land, landowners were faced with a dilemma; how to manage the underbrush. Earlier this year researchers acquired of a few of the Piney Woods cattle on loan to see just how effective they could be at managing the understory shrubs at USM's Lake Thoreau. That was of course our goal, is to have them through browsing, suppress the weed vegetation, and they're doing a *** up job of that. Looking at a section of the forest without the cattle compared to where they've lived for a few weeks, it's no surprise they've consumed over a hundred different species of plants. Including things that if you don't ask a typical ag. Background lifestyle person, they'll say oh cows don't eat that. Well don't tell these cows, they do. They eat pretty much anything and will even push over larger trees to get to the vegetation on top. Scientists believe that with each bite, cows are improving the habitat for other animals in the longleaf pine ecosystem as well. Soon they'll be returned to their home in Louisiana, leaving researchers with the task of compiling data from this livestock experiment with a hearty appreciation for this breed of cow that once called the piney woods of south Mississippi home. From The University of Southern Mississippi, I'm Layla Essary.