Cattle feeding trials with acorns and oak leaves indicate need for supplementing dry range forage

The incidence of deformed calves—acorn calves—has decreased with the widening use of supplemental range feeding and improved breeding herd management. Some stockmen operating in oak areas in California have long considered that consumption of acorns by pregnant range cattle contributed to the birth of deformed calves, to loss of weight, abortions, and even death. Other stockmen have claimed acorns were not harmful but were good cattle feed.