A breakthrough came with the discovery that cattle can be set stocked on tagasaste. Cattle tongues are too large to pick off the new shoot buds, and some leaves always remain on the plant. Sheep can remove every leaf from tagasaste but this does not cause plant deaths. The removal of new buds by sheep, which appear about six weeks after grazing, can lead to plant deaths. Today the majority of tagasaste is used for cattle grazing with plantations able to be grazed at any time of year. Though it can grow up to 5 metres in height, when managed for grazing it is kept to less than 2 metres in height.