Something important, if you’re putting manure around the base of trees, is to not bury the root flare. Doing so can make your tree sick and eventually kill it.
Info here:
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Possibly a water oak. If you post closeups of the leaves, I could say for sure. If it’s a water oak, I definitely wouldn’t bother fencing it or doing much to protect the tree. The life span of a water oak is significantly less than a live oak or pin oak.
Again, thank you all for your comments! We’ve had rain all day today but now it’s clear. I finally got a chance to get some leaves and now some pictures. After looking up water oaks, I think our tree might be one of these varieties.
I will definitely ask the tree service owner (tomorrow) about throwing manure around the tree where the acorns fall and how much we can use without hurting the tree. (Thanks, @OzarksRider and @skydy!)
And thank you @Simkie for the information regarding the root flare.
Speaking of leaves, I also read that oak leaves are toxic to horses. Do your horses eat oak leaves without getting sick?
Here’s a picture of the leaves. What do you think?
For sure, not a water oak. I don’t think it’s a pin oak, either. Maybe a bur oak?
There is tannin in the leaves, which is toxic, but not like red maple and oleander is toxic… they have to eat a lot of it, and really the leaves don’t taste that good. Mine snack on the ones that blow up against the fence in the fall in the dry lot, but only when they’re out of hay. So I rakeup the leaves (and acorns) and make sure they have hay. Your tree is out in a pasture. They are unlikely to eat a bunch of leaves when there is grass. You can rake them or mow to chop them up.
My property is white oak, red oak, some water oak that was planted, those are not very nice, and hickory. I have removed all the red maple I find, but I do not worry about the oak trees at all other than fencing them away from the acorns when they start falling since my old horse has a taste for them.
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Definitely in the white oak group. My guess would be either Post Oak or Overcup Oak.
Oak leaves are mildly toxic, but unlike the maples and cherry (also peach and plum, any prunus) they don’t taste good so a horse is very unlikely to eat them. Oaks are toxic because of tannins; the prunus family is toxic due to a form of cyanide; maples are due to an odd bunch of chemicals.
My tree eating horses have never gone after the oak leaves, even though they are within reach still.
oleander is really the only thing I would worry about the others even including black walnut would only be a concern during periods of extreme droughts.
oleander only takes one mouth full to kill the others they have to consume a very large quantity which if they have an alternative such as free fed hay they would not even look at the trees
It doesn’t take a lot of manure to keep the horses off the acorns, at least not with my guys. Just sprinkle it around lightly where acorns are on the ground.
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I am in the desert. Not much in the way of trees. However when I built my arena in the only placement possible on my acre property there was a giant over 100 year old saguaro cactus in the middle. I was going to fence and was worried but I was able to use giant old logs leftover from something previous owner did and then put GIANT rocks in the middle around it. Only my mini attempted to go in and on the rocks and soon decided not worth it. So your deterrent doesn’t have to be that much. Believe it or not, it makes about a 3 X 10 foot shade patch they enjoy!
Horses with not much to graze on such as small paddocks and pastures will chew the bark, girdle and kill oaks and other trees. I wrapped chicken wire around the trunks down to the ground. Horses are more of a danger to oaks than oaks are to horses.
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I also encourage you to keep that beautiful oak.
Why are you taking down the black walnut and cherries that are not in the pasture? The BW shavings are toxic in bedding, but leaves and bark are not palatable unless horse is very hungry. The fruits are large (tennis ball size) and easy to collect to peel and crack for the delicious nuts!
The more biodiversity on your farm the better for your land, wildlife and probably property value as well.
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For what it’s worth, I was probably one of the accounts you read about horses gorging on acorns and getting sick. My one horse goes berserk over them, then has hoof and colic problems. She will eat acorns over lush grass if given the choice. It’s like she’s addicted.
But I wouldn’t cut one down on account of it. I’m glad you’re keeping it.
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The idea about spreading manure on the acorn drop zone is genius. I have an oak that the horses can only get to when I give them access to that yard, and they invariably snack on a few acorns when in there. But then they wander off and graze, and then come back and crunch a few more, then wander off… you get the idea. I (so far) have not had one suffer any ill effects from it though.
