Hi, I am wondering what ergometric free in grass means? I do not think the spelling is correct but it has to do with grass seed and I thought ruminant animals. Lynn

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), November 29, 2001

Answers

Probably means ergot. A fungus that replaces a seed.

-- Ed (Esdc425@aol.com), November 29, 2001.

I would venture to say that this grass seed contains absolutely no ergometrics. If you do some research on Ergometrics on the web you will find that it is a sofware package, created by a company called Red River, commonly used on corporate intranets to display key performance indicators graphically. So egometric free grass seed does not contain any pesky graphical software packages.

-- Jedburg Pinopolis (jpinopolis@yahoo.com), November 29, 2001.

I believe what you are referring to is a strain of fescue grass free of the toxin (ergot) which causes what is commonly called Fescue Foot, Fescue Lameness or Fescue Toxcity as it sometimes causes what is called dry gangrene of the hoofs. Animals with it just become poor doers. I am not sure as I can't find my reference, but I relieve feeding a particular element, and I want to say magnesium, helps prevent it. If you think you have something like this, call up your vet.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 29, 2001.

Ergot can also cause abortion (anyone heard of ergotamine?). Used to be responsible for outbreaks in people of what was called "St Vitus' dance" - jerky muscle movements caused in the same way as the muscle contractions which would cause abortions - could sometimes affect entire villages - particularly after a wet growing season. This is people who had eaten infected rye grain - say rye bread. The fungus grows inside the seed case, replacing the seed with a black or grey mass of fungal spores which contains the poison.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 29, 2001.

This is also the same basic stuff that LSD is made from.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 29, 2001.

Mitch, I'm impressed! You'll have the trolls VOLUNTARILY eating ergot. What a great move!

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 29, 2001.

What you are talking about Ken is an endophyte that is on fescue grass. It causes a decrease in circulation. It can cause a lot of trouble in the cow's extremities and you see a lot of cows without tips of tails and sometimes without a tail at all. It constricts the blood flow somehow and the tail can just die. It makes their feet feel very hot to them. I guess that is because the blood doesn't flow properly and therefore doesn't regulate the temperature. I am not sure. I just know that is what the fescue problem is. I have heard of people eating infected rye and the saint vitus dance. Maybe it effects them in a similar way. I know that a cow with fescue foot will stand in a pond even on a cold day to try to cool it's feet. It can make a horse lame too.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 30, 2001.