Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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CUTTING LAYOUT
7½"
7½"
side
8¼"
18"
+
-
5'
8¼"
side
side
8¼"
This salt feeder has a capacity of
14 pounds (6.5 kg) and can be
made quickly from one 1"
×
8"
×
5'
board and 24 galvanized 8d
nails.
18"
+
-
8¼"
side
7½"
Poisonous Plants
All areas of North America are host to some poisonous plants. The good news
is that animals usually don't chow down on these plants unless they're very
hungry. But sometimes an individual animal will start eating a poisonous
plant even if there's plenty of good feed available.
Check with your county Extension agent to learn which plants in your area
are poisonous (make sure you specify that you're interested in sheep, as some
plants that are poisonous to cattle or horses don't affect sheep at all). Or try
a Web search for the name of your state, poisonous plants, and sheep. As poi-
sonous plants vary from state to state, there isn't one all-encompassing site to
recommend, but with a little persistence you will fi nd abundant information
on the Internet.
With any new pasture, walk around it and note any unusual or unfamiliar
plants. If there are plants you cannot identify, send several fresh whole plants
(stem, leaves, fl owers, seeds) to the state agricultural college wrapped in sev-
eral layers of newspaper. Someone there should be able to identify them and
advise about their toxicity.
After you know what toxic plants are around, develop a plan for dealing
with them. Some plants are toxic only during certain stages, so you can keep
animals out of the area during that period. Others are mildly toxic and require
the ingestion of huge amounts before they affect animals, so you'll just need to
