Fertile Ground USA...Celebrating the people behind the plow

Contrary to popular myth, goats won’t eat everything. At least, they wouldn’t eat a weed known as poor man’s alfalfa, a hearty legume that Tom Terrill of the Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control, knew they should eat. Goats are often besieged by a pesky parasite, a nasty little fellow known as the Barbers Pole Worm [if you want to really be cool, you call it by its scientific name, Haemonchus contortus.] This blood-sucking monster adheres to the lining of the goat’s stomach and causes anemia and then eventually death. For years, farmers have been giving their goats antihelminthics, or antibiotics, to control the infestation problem. But, surprise, surprise -- resistance to these drugs is growing.  Here steps in Terrill, who has been following up on his PhD work to create a tastier variety of this roadside weed, its official name being “serecia lespedeza” [just try saying that three times fast.] By tweaking the tannin count and other things, Terrill has discovered that not only do the condensed tannins in this weed stave off infestation but goats even like it. Yum, yum. And as the immigrant population increases in the South and goat meat sales rise [they have doubled in the past 10 years,] this is great news for many farmers. So Terrill and his colleague Dr. Jorge Mosjidis at Auburn University in Alabama have now cultivated and trademarked Au Grazer, a patented seed for the weed sold exclusively by Sims Brothers in Bullock County, Alabama. Tom Sims, a second generation farmer and co-owner of the seed company, says he’s selling it hand over fist. And this magic weed holds promise for sheep, cattle and horse populations too. Better go get you some.