There is a truck farmer near where I live. After Halloween, there are hundreds of pumpkins in the field. would they make good cow feed. Cut them up? Worth the effort or not?

-- dave kirschten (davekirsh10@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001

Answers

Would think the would be fine for cows. We have goats and I don't even have to cut them up, they will have their whole head inside them eating them out!

-- leslie in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), December 04, 2001.

Just drop them on the ground and let them bust rather than cutting them up. Punpkins are a good food for a variety of other animals as well as cows.

-- Bill (possumpals@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001.

Deer love em too...trust me. I believe you won't even have to break them open. They'll move onto them one by one until the pumpkins are gone. I've have been told that are a winter staple for dairy cows in Russia. (the vitamin A content does the cows great good)

-- scott (ssbitzer@aep.com), December 04, 2001.

It is one of my old gelding, Mick's favorite treats too!! He is eating all of the Jack be little pumpkins I grew for decorating for fall up for his treats now that I am done with them. I don't share the big ones..I can them. My goats and sheep won't eat pumpkins for some reason. The chickens did slowly eat the jack o lantern carcasses though.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), December 04, 2001.

My chickens love em.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.

My grandfather busted them with an ax first, just to get them started.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), December 04, 2001.

When my husband and I was on the road last month. We saw a lot of pumpkins fed to cows. Pumpkin seeds are good for worming properties and it is not bad for them. I give pumpkins to our chickens, goats and dogs. They all love it!

-- Debra (olallacreek@myfarm.net), December 04, 2001.

Feed the pumpkins to the cows... they will love you for it! We have a pumpkin farm, and always feed the leftovers to the cows. They don't hurt them at all. The seeds do pass through undigested though, look for vines sprouting up next year wherever the manure is spread!

-- Mary (zoots25@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.

We got a load of pumpkins one year and fed them to the sheep. They love them. Cows would probably like them also. I would throw them to the ground so they would break open. My sheep had orange noses that winter!

-- Patricia Ramsey (WOOLSPIN@AOL.COM), December 04, 2001.

Every critter I have loves pumpkin. For the pigs, poultry, and cattle, all I do is break them open, and they take it from there. For goats, I chop them into bite sized pieces, to make it easier for them to chew.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), December 08, 2001.

When I glanced at the title of this thread I thought it said "feeding puppies to cows".

Oh dear, I thought for a second, here we go again........:)

Sorry, had to share.....

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), December 08, 2001.