Rayless Goldenrod Poisonous to Livestock

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Researchers at New Mexico State University have found that now is the best time to control a plant harmful to livestock. Anna María Pérez-Wright reports.

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As summer winds down, it's the time to control rayless goldenrod, a poisonous plant that can kill livestock, especially horses. The native, perennial shrub, also called jimmyweed, grows two to three feet tall, primarily along rivers. Brush and weed specialist Keith Duncan with New Mexico State University's Agricultural Science Center at Artesia says timing of treatments is critical.

"It is a plant that research by New Mexico State University has shown is best controlled in the late summertime as soon as it starts blooming, up through the first frost. Applications during other times of the year are not consistent in their levels of control, but once they bloom they are very susceptible to the herbicide."

Duncan says tremetol, the toxin in rayless goldenrod, produces a condition called "trembles" in affected animals.

"Horses seem to be particularly susceptible to rayless goldenrod, although we get reports of cattle as well being affected. For the most part, once animals start showing the symptoms, they die, and it's a fairly quick death, a matter of just a few hours."

For information on rayless goldenrod control, call your county Extension office. For N-M-S-U's College of Agriculture and Home Economics, I'm Anna María Pérez-Wright.