School Days Again

Tuesday I attended a couple of classes in Stephenville that are required to maintain my pesticide applicator's license. This license is required to be able to buy agricultural chemicals. By the end of the day I had earned 5 hours of CEU credit.



The session began at 10 am with a 2 hour class dealing with chemicals and equipment used for brush and weed control. At noon we were treated with a catfish dinner supplied by a local equipment dealer. The food vender cooked in a trailer just outside the building and served the catfish, chicken and fries piping hot.

The three hour afternoon session covered toxic plants of Texas and their identification and control as well as treatment of affected livestock. It seems that Oleander is one of the most toxic plants in the state! Cockle Burr is extremely deadly from the time the seed sprouts until the plant has about 4 leaves. I remember this as a serious problem for baby pigs that like to eat the young plants. Most poisonous plants are avoided by livestock if they have adequate good forage available.

The toxicologist that spoke told of being elected to a term on his local school board. He said that there were two oleander plants outside the front door of the kindergarten room at his school but the day after his first meeting as a board member these plants disappeared!

I was familiar with prussic acid poisoning mainly from sorghum plants like Johnson grass and have seen cows die within a short time of eating frozen Johnson grass. I did learn that the actual damage is done by cyanide gas that is released in the plant during these times of stress.