We'd Eat It! DVD

If you'd like to share this idea with groups, friends, or funders, you might like the DVD "Training Cows and Bison to Eat Canada Thistle: Ranchers' Perspectives.

It covers 6 different ranches, six different ways of using the same training process, and includes insights from the ranchers who participated.

This DVD will help you understand why cows can learn to eat weeds and how you can put together a simple, inexpensive training plan to target your own weed or vegetation management issues. The DVD includes:
Training Steps and the Science Behind Them: See the steps demonstrated as cows learn to eat Distaff and Italian thistle in Marin County, California.
Project Examples: The project examples give you different ideas of how you might adapt the training process to your own operation. They include:

Grant-Kohrs Ranch 2004 - The original training steps are developed as cows eat Canada thistle, leafy spurge and spotted knapweed.
Grant-Kohrs Ranch 2005 - Cows teach their calves and they eat leafy spurge in pasture.
Boulder County Colorado 2007 - See the refined training process at work as cows learn to eat late-season diffuse knapweed.

Rancher Interviews: Ranchers that have participated in the project share some of their thoughts on it:

Mike and Sally Gale, Chileno Valley Beef discuss their experience teaching cows to eat Distaff thistle.
Joe Morris, San Juan Bautista, CA - describes how he trained cows to eat milk thistle and how the cows went on to eat Italian thistle and black mustard.