Guest guest Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 Just a caution. In the early 80's at my farm, I had 220 head of cows, several bulls. I had to put up immense amount of hay. I leased a large section of land from the National forest for cutting hay. There were several acres next to the woods filled with bracken fern and good grass. Cut it and made hay. That winter, when I started to feed hay, I used my own farm hay first as it was the best. In spring i used the hay from the leased lands. All of a sudden, my cattle started to have spells like they were totally drunk. Would go one for a few days and they were dying.Carried the first few to the NC ag center for autopsies, no results or reasons. Carried one to a retired vet and pathologist, who was willing to test. He found everything totally normal except the hormones produced by the pituatary gland were way upward and off the scale. Sorry, been too many years to remember all the names. Couldn't give me a clue as to the reason. Got my Merk vet. manual out, started at page one, and hit bracken fern. Found it does something to the pituatary gland that releases a toxin that results in drunken behavior, paralasis, then death. all perfect symptoms, and started when I fed the hay from the fern are. May not be an issue with young ferns, or other varieties. But I lost almost $10,000 in a month. And no vet could answer the issue. I would be carefull. May not affect humans, but totally untested, even to animals at that time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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