From the Kitchen Table

By Lynn Harlan

Springtime in the Rockies

I carefully nudged the tip of my knife under the metal band, circling the very small bottle of soremouth vaccine. These little bottles are $40 or more these days and a crime to spill the contents.

I painstakingly eased around the top of the bottle, trying not to jab my hand, which I’ve done plenty of times before. I’ve also tried pliers to tear off the band – I just don’t want to scatter the contents of the two bottles before they’re mixed. One is dry ingredients and one is liquid “live virus.”

Yellow and white sweet clover seems to be everywhere this year. Timely rainfall has sweet clover growing in road ditches, fallow areas, pasture and range and even in places no one has ever seen it before.

Species common to the Great Plains

Sweet clover comes from Eurasia and is found from Central Europe to Tibet.

The first report of sweet clover growing in what would become the U.S. traces back to 1739. Since then, it has become naturalized across the continent, but it is common in the Great Plains states.

“Yellow and white sweet clovers are biennials, meaning it takes them two years to complete their life cycle,” says James Rogers, North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension forage systems specialist. “Sweet clover will re-seed itself naturally, with seeds remaining viable in the soil bank for up to 40 years.”

The plants seen flowering now are second-year plants which will set seed and then die. New seedlings will remain vegetative the first year, developing a deep taproot and a crown with buds which will produce multiple branches in the second year of growth.

There are some annual forms of sweet clover, but these are rare.

“Sweet clover has long been recognized as a soilimproving crop with a number of desirable characteristics,” says Rogers. “It is a legume capable of nitrogen fixation. It forms a deep soilpenetrating taproot which aids in water infiltration and aeration.”

“Sweet clover also tolerates alkaline soils, which makes it an attractive option to include in seeding mixture for alkaline land reclamation,” he continues. “It also has many wildlife benefits, providing food, cover and nesting habitat.”

When I first started helping vaccinate lambs for soremouth, the bottles of vaccine cost under two dollars.

It was our first big docking, and I was asked to vaccinate lambs. There had been a couple of smaller dockings, but we had been waiting to do this bunch around the rain. The lambs were born in the shed in April and were getting big. Thank goodness for high school boys and girls!

So, back to work.

After the deep snow we fought all winter, the

Sweet

Negative characteristics

As with all forage species, sweet clover also has some negative characteristics, Rogers adds. It does not tolerate close grazing or haying in its first year of growth, and it can cause bloat.

Most notably, it contains coumarin which gives the plant a distinctive sweet odor when crushed but also creates a bitter taste and can reduce palatability to livestock. Overtime livestock can adjust to the taste.

When sweet clover is harvested as part of a hay crop and is not dried properly for baling, overheating can occur within the bale, creating fungi that can convert coumarin to dicoumarol.

Dicoumarol reduces the blood clotting ability of animals consuming the forage, which can lead to internal hemorrhaging. The issue can be difficult to detect, as it may take several days for symptoms to develop.

“When feeding hay containing sweet clover, watch for muscle stiffness or lameness or hematomas – swelling under the skin – as this could be an initial indication of sweet clover poisoning,” says Karl Hoppe, NDSU Extension livestock systems specialist. “Cattle tend to be more affected than sheep or horses, which have more selective eating habits than cattle.”

Feeding cattle hay with extremely high concentrations of dicoumarol can lead to death within a day.

Feeding recommendations

Hay containing sweet clover should be thoroughly cured and stored to avoid development of mold. As it reaches maturity, sweet clover develops thick, coarse stems, which makes drying difficult.

When harvesting for hay, use a mower conditioner to crush the stems and improve drying. Pure stands of sweet clover will be the highest risk for dicoumarol due to the lack of a dilution factor land was dry in early May. Mother Nature sent rain and plenty of it. We managed to get the calves branded and the herds moved before the rains set in.

We range lambed in the rain, and we’ll see how it worked when we start docking those bunches, but it was never too cold so hopefully the rain didn’t hurt too much. We have to sacrifice to the rain Gods to raise all this gorgeous grass. And, Wyoming is gorgeous this spring.

Bob and I slipped off to Maine for a getaway in mid-May. I suggested a trip to Maine is for the fall – to adore the varied fall foliage from all the hardwoods that we don’t have here. But, fall is too busy so off to Maine we went.

Maine is beautiful, and I just had to imagine all of those trees cloaked in vivid reds, oranges and yellows from other species.

“Because of the abundance of sweet clover this year, it will be difficult to avoid producing hay with at least some sweet clover presence,” says Hoppe. “If properly baled and stored, dicoumarol development should not be an issue.”

Low-coumarin varieties of sweet clover have been released, but caution still is advised.

Feeding management can reduce the risk of feeding hay containing sweet clover. Options include blending hay containing sweet clover with other hays to dilute the dicoumarol or using an alternating feeding schedule.

Feed sweet clover laced hay for two days followed instead of their brilliant green. Maine gets rain too.

We ate lobster-in-therough – right out of the pot – fried clams and various other gifts from the sea. We went out in the harbors on a small fishing boat, a sailboat and a tourist lobster boat.

Maine has as much shoreline as California with all of its inlets, bays and peninsulas. The quaint villages had houses and churches, dated back to the 1690s, 1700s and 1890s, which was way before Wyoming was a state.

It was a nice trip, and we even got to explore the tunnels under downtown Boston while trying to return the rental car near the airport.

While driving back from the Denver airport, in the rain of course, we noticed Cheyenne and northward are absolutely verdant. And, natural snow fences made of trees and shrubs have done so well.

We weren’t home long before my brother from Texas came to visit. He likes to golf and enjoys the course in Buffalo, which is one of the nicest ones in the state. He hadn’t been to Devil’s Tower or Cody.

He said if it wasn’t a horse show or rodeo he got dragged along to, or a high school football trip, he hadn’t seen it. He graciously asked me to go along as tour guide, so I quickly re-packed and off we went.

Four rounds of golf and 1,300 miles later, we hit Devil’s Tower, Sheridan, Highway 14A off to Lovell, on up to Red Lodge, Mont., drove down on the Beartooth Highway, the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway into Cody and back through the Big Horn Basin to Highway 16.

We drove through Tensleep Canyon by Pow- der River Pass and down through Crazy Woman Canyon to Kaycee. We had plenty of rain off and on and a deep slush at Beartooth Pass Summit at 10,947 feet. Every creek and river were raging full.

So, vacation trips are over, a nephew’s wedding in Colorado is over, Chris LeDoux Days has ended, the College National Finals Rodeo is finished and spring was officially over on June 21. Now, a busy summer begins.

My grandson lost the rain gauge, but when it kept coming and coming, I just judged the deluge by the puddles in the road and how deep it was in the wheelbarrow. The grass is tall and the reservoirs are full and overflowing.

We are blessed.

“Without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike by hay without sweet clover for three to four days.

Avoid feeding hay containing sweet clover for at least 30 days prior to animals being castrated or dehorned to avoid hemorrhaging issues. Also avoid feeding sweet clover hay to pregnant cows one to two months before calving.

Do not feed moldy hay containing sweet clover to livestock, and do not rely on visual observation to determine toxicity. Even small amounts of mold can result in toxicity.

NDSU Extension specialists recommend ranchers test all hay containing sweet clover for the presence of dicoumarol. Testing for dicoumarol concentration in hay is available at the

NDSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

“Sweet clover has become a naturalized part of our pastures and range,” says Rogers. “It provides many benefits to the soil and wildlife and is an excellent forage. It does have some disadvantages, but they can be managed. Proper curing and testing of hay containing sweet clover, as well as proper feeding management, can overcome potential issues.”

Elizabeth Cronin is a writer for Drovers. This article was originally published in Drovers on June 30.

FAIR continued from page 1

FFA advisor in Texas.

She later moved back home to Wyoming and took the 4-H educator position in Sweetwater County in 2015, after her former 4-H educator contacted her with the opportunity.

Today, Marty continues to help youth pave their future through 4-H programs. After working in this position for eight years, Marty says she plans to continue educating the exhibitors in Sweetwater County for a while longer.

4-H and FFA provide lifelong benefits

There is no doubt being involved in 4-H and FFA has numerous, lifelong benefits. Marty notes this list is endless, but the biggest two lessons are respect and responsibility.

She states, “There is a huge opportunity of skill sets to be learned in 4-H – from animal husbandry to engineering, networking and fine arts. Travel is another huge aspect – 4-H allows kids to get out and see the world, meet new people, spend time in different communities and learn new things.”

“I would also say speaking skills are fine tuned in this program, usually without many kids even knowing. But, the biggest thing I’d like to point out is there are so many ways for kids to learn and to earn educational opportunities, such as scholarships to attend college and make way for a future they will enjoy,” she adds.

Marty is a prime example of how fair offers far more than showing livestock in a ring. She reiterates how much 4-H and FFA have helped her through life and explains numerous life skills exhibitors learn and retain through the program.

She believes by being a 4-H member and/or FFA member, youth are already a step ahead in life.

Marty also believes county fair is a snapshot of the ag industry’s future, stating one thing that continues to strengthen and build agri-

“But, the biggest thing I’d like to point out is there are so many ways for kids to learn and to earn educational opportunities, such as scholarships to attend college and make way for a future they will enjoy.” culture’s future is the work 4-H and FFA exhibitors do year-round. She believes the skills these kids are learning is crucial to the future of ag. True meaning behind fair Marty states, “Fair means celebration, a culmination for kids to show off what they do and work hard at every day. It is also a time for families to get together and have a sort of ‘vacation.’”

Marty highly encourages exhibitors to dig deep to understand the underlying education and lifelong lessons that come with being involved in 4-H and FFA, as well as to step out of comfort zones to learn new skills.

She also expresses how important it is to continue working hard and to never give up, because one day all of the hard work will pay off.

Preslee Fitzwater is an intern for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net

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