A Poison for Every Plant

bayer_cattlemen_pdf

Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Association is an outstanding organization. Annually, TSCRA circulates to its members a calendar like this one, compliments of Bayer-Monsanto Chemical.

The fact that this leading, respected cattle organization is promoting the ubiquitous use of rangeland pesticides demonstrates the extent to which ranchers, farmers and wildlife managers have been brainwashed by our universities and agencies to rely on chemicals instead of sustainable, restorative grazing practices.

Bayer’s idea seems to be that anything but grass is undesirable on rangeland occupied by cattle. In fact, cattle eat most of these non-grass plants to some degree, at some time during the plants’ growth cycles.

Anytime you eliminate one of these plants, other plants disappear. And, we have no idea what these poisons are doing to soil life without which there would be no plants or animals.

Under restorative practices including proper grazing, poisons aren’t needed. As rangeland recovers, native grasses crowd out weeds.

The booklet is actually a very handy reference to identify forbs (weeds) on the range. Every one of these plants benefits wildlife, including deer, pronghorn, elk and quail, to name just a few.

Document available here

Author:
Ranching, wildlife management, finance, oil & gas, real estate development and management.
Comments
  • Man I”m sorry to hear about that. Looked over the calendar, what great pictures, Pictures of plants that for the most part get eaten by cattle and other stock(wildlife). What a waste, the thing that makes ranching great, being destroyed by people who understand the least of and only what fast profits from selling their crap.
    I like the idea of the calendar. How about we make it as a guide to adapting Holistic concepts. That could be a great help.

    • Hi Erik,

      Yes, cattle get 20-40% of their diet from plants other than grass and their health probably improves when they are getting all kinds of medicine and trace compounds from nibbling small amounts of these weeds, even some that might be toxic in large amounts. Holistic managers on open ranges try to get animals into areas where these weeds are available. Really a mistake to eliminate everything but grass from the cattle’s diet, then replace natural medicines with supplements, antibiotics and wormers: It’s neither cheaper nor more profitable to do this.

      The TSWCRA calendar is a great little plant guide. The holistic calendar is a great idea: Someone should work on one.

      Thanks for writing.

      Chris

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