Will cows eat palms?

[5am]

I've started lots of palm seedlings and I want to plant some out where we have cows. Will the cows eat them? And if so, do seedlings with armed petioles stand any better chance? 

[aztropic]

Cows will eat or trample them. Spines won't save them...

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona.

[5am]

We’ll that’s a shame. Guess I’ll have to learn to make small fences to box them in. Thanks! 

[3 Milesfrom Gulf of Mexico]

Yes they will eat them.  I have 10 cows in Brooksville Fl which had numerous hammocks of saw palmetto.  The cows fully defioliated the palms down to the soil line.  

[Fusca]

Mooooooooooo!  

During times of drought when hay is scarce ranchers will feed cattle prickly pear pads (with thorns scorched off) so there isn't much they won't eat.  Doesn't do much nutritionally but keeps them alive.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Fusca

[John Eve]

When there's lots of green grass around the cows in my area give my palms a pass.  It's obviously their 2nd choice.  But GOATS!  
Beware, goats will eat everything, all the time.  Goats are my real worry, for local villagers sometimes take their flocks wandering through open fields looking for free feed, and sometimes they don't notice, and don't keep their goats away from my small palms. Munch.  Munch. Gone.

 

[D Palm]

In Florida, a rogue sabal or patch of sabals are growing in cow pastures. With trunks of course. A neighbor up the road has a couple of Pindo palms with trunks growing in a cow pasture. 
 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

I've seen Sabal Mexicana, Sabal Rosei, Sabal Pumos, Sabal Gretheriae, Sabal Yapa, and Acrocomia Aculeata, surviving in South Mexican farms with cows and horses in the Yucatan Peninsula.

One thing I know, Sabals are made to lose fronds and get neglected. That's why they are used as a source of tatch. so I would recommend a Sabal Palm.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

Here's a photo I found of several Sabal Palmetto growing in a cow pasture.