A Close Call

Saturday morning I was working the Strawberry U-Pick. Jonathan, our young and eager farm manager, came in to work the morning to help me out. We all thought we would be home by lunch because of the rain we were assured was imminent. (the rain never came) While I prepared the strawberry patch, Jonathan checked on all the livestock. At a farm a few miles away, he found that a large limb had blown out of a tree and some of the cattle were grazing on the newly available leaves. Having a degree in agriculture, Jonathan knew that if this was a wild cherry tree, it could be fatal to the cattle. He snapped a couple of pictures and sent them to me as he ran the cows away from the tree. We agreed that this was, in fact, a wild cherry tree and that he needed to move the cattle to an adjacent pasture. Thankfully, the tree branch had just fallen, and we were able to get the cows out of that area. I am certain that several of those cows are still alive because Jonathan 1) Was willing to come in and work on a day he was scheduled to be off. Work ethic matters. The best ability of all is availability. 2) Had the knowledge to know that specific tree leaves can be toxic to cattle. 3) Took action immediately. Always have a bias toward action. It's hard to be everwhere I need to be on the farm. I am so proud that we have built a team of folks that care about what we are doing as deeply as I do. It is an honor and a privilage to work with our entire team every day. When they do things like this, I am extra proud. Thanks Jonathan. Why is wild cherry tree toxic, and why are our cows ok. Wild Cherry trees store "ingredients" (prunasin and amygdalin) in their leaves that, under certain conditions, can combine to form cyanide. The most dangerous condition is when the leaves are wilted. Wilted leaves have the highest level of concentrated cyanide due to enzymatic action as cell walls break down. In our case, the limb had just blown down in the previous 12 hours during a cool night. Since Jonathan was there early, he was able to take action before wilting occurred. Soon I will be channeling my inner George Washington...I will be chopping down the cherry tree.