If a strip of bark has been taken vertically off the tree but most of the bark is still intact, the bark will eventually rejoin but it will be a slow process and the tree trunk may die off in patches and/or be infected with fungi, rot, etc. In this case, grafting tape may have helped but it's probably a bit too late for that now - the exposed sections would have dried out. A new tree would probably be a quicker option than waiting for the existing tree to recover.

Would you like me to send you some goat recipes?

My previous cat (who died of old age) developed a nasty habit of sharpening her claws on the trunk of a particular tree and was making a real mess of it. I got some green plastic trellis (the sort that comes in rolls) and made a loose tree guard. That stopped her! It might be worth thinking of something like this if you want to keep both goat and trees.

But as far as the tree goes, he took strips off from nearly all around the tree's trunk from the bottom up to almost the top and must have eaten the bark as there was no bark on the ground or left on the tree, so we'll be off to a nursery (always expensive visiting them place's) to replace our Elm, I guess.

Thanks again Wombat, regards Gunga36.