IMPORTANT!! Long story from me (when do I EVER write a short story??)
NEVER IGNORE THE LIL VOICE IN YOUR HEAD!
Extreme cow drama! Here’s what happened: I have this small area that’s outside my pasture fence; it’s a long triangle about 50×400’. It’s our “gonna be a garden and beautiful lil orchard” place. It’s about 2/3 of tall Bermuda grass and 1/3 Johnson grass Last year I Round-Upped some of the Johnson grass; thought I killed it all but it came back stronger this year. It was stupid, I thought, to mow the Bermuda and to keep trying to kill the Johnson grass.
Perfect plan, I decided: run a hotwire and let the cows in. So I did that this AM. I knew that Johnson grass could get two types of poison and both could kill cows. All that was in my mind was that one kind happened in heavily fertilized grass, and another happened in regrowth after drought or frost. So I thought, “Well, that’s a no and a no.”
SO luckily, I called the county Ag Agent who said he hadn’t heard of any problems, but that conditions were pretty right (w/ the recent and sudden extreme heat over 100). He just happened to be driving down to A&M that morning with a sample, and he’d take some down for me.
I met him at 10AM at the Italy Exxon on his way down, gave him my $10. Believe it or not, the results were emailed to me at 5PM:
“Toxicology Analysis: Cyanide, qualitative, prussic acid
Completed: 8/6/2012
Specimen Result: 4+
Comments:
Prussic acid is measured on a scale of 0 to 4+. Forages at 1+ and 2+ are safe to graze. A 3+ sample should only be eaten by animals that are not very hungry. A 4+ is potentially lethal to graze. High prussic acid forages can be safely cut for hay if they are left in the sun for 7 days prior to baling.
— Dr. Garland”
IF I HAD IGNORED THAT LITTLE VOICE IN MY HEAD, I would have had this: “Livestock can show symptoms of intoxication within 5 minutes of eating plants with the poison, and may die within 15 minutes.”
Wow. Just wow.
zebuatoz 