They are all dead

[TexasBred]

Now being reported on Georgia Public Radio.

On this mornings news:

Positively identified Temek as the poisen that killed the cows.

Tested the remaining bags of feed from the farm and found no Temek in them.GBI and GA Dept. of Ag. officials interviewing and investigating.

Wow..now that makes me think it may have happened "on the farm".

 

[Chris H]

Now being reported on Georgia Public Radio.

On this mornings news:

Positively identified Temek as the poisen that killed the cows.

Tested the remaining bags of feed from the farm and found no Temek in them.GBI and GA Dept. of Ag. officials interviewing and investigating.

Wow..now that makes me think it may have happened "on the farm".

Since you're a used feed salesman, maybe you'd be more familiar than I am with how small batches of feed like this are mixed & closed up. Is there any manual handling between the time a bag is filled and when it's closed? Could Temek be put in empty bags before being filled? My point is, is there any way 1 or several bags out of a batch can be contaminated instead of a full batch?

 

[gberry]

I have three comments. First, again, I'm sorry about your friends loss Jogeephus. Second the link Dun provided is the event that first brought Temik to my mind. The investigators of that accident apparently decided the owner had accidentally mixed the poison in with the feed. Evidently, he had obtained the poison to kill coyotes and pigs and had it in an unlabeled bag near the feed mill. He thought it was mineral and accidentally added it to the feed.

Finally, I wouldn't be so sure about the integrity of the feed mills. I have a cousin who hauls feed ingredients. He says it is common to get a load of peanut hulls turned down for aflatoxin at Purina and take it down the road to sell to a smaller mill. I'm not saying that a mill would intentionally do something like this ,just that not all feed mills use the same standards for toxins in their feed ingredients.

 

[TexasBred]

Chris, to answer your question, yes there is always a possibility someone can put something into one bag of feed....even in fully automated feed mills. No need to elaborate. I'll keep it simple and not confuse you with minute details.

One thing about testing for aflatoxin is that there is no perfect way to test for it. You may probe a load of corn or whole cottonseed or some other ingredient in many different places and get a negative test, yet miss the one big hot spot in the load that may be high in aflatoxin. But if you ever get one HOT test (positive) then you should turn down the entire load regardless.

 

[Jogeephus]

Update. Haven't bothered the immediate family with questions but did ask their first cousin how things were going. He said things are terrible. Seems the FBI/GBI are interogating them as though they may have intentionally poisoned there own feed. Asked if there were marital problems, enemies etc etc. He said they are sick of it. Said this is the worse thing that has ever happened to them and now they are treated like criminals. Also, seems the mill's attorneys' are now in on it and it sounds as though they are denying any responsibilty whatsoever. Said they don't use Temik in their mill and it couldn't have come from them so they are not liable.

So there are three scenarios:

1. A man comes home from work - (at a big cattle farm) and grabs a bag of feed and walks down the trough pouring the feed into the trough for some young cows he is fixing to breed. Cattle come up and eat. Cows begin to die. Cows die. He calls his family. They try to unbloat them but they all die. He calls the vet. They call the diagnostic lab. Turns out its temik in the feed. Other bags aren't tainted. Brand new bull they just bought dies too. Somewhere, somehow somebody poisoned a bag of feed. (How many of you have ever seen a torn bag at a feed store or a bag with duct tape covering a hole? Not saying this is what happened but are you concerned when you see this or is this a pretty common occurance)

2. Man comes home from work at a cattle farm. Sees his young cows nursing their calves and watches his newly bought bull checking the girls out. One of the cows looks at him cross-eyed and this pisses him off and he decides to poison his herd. He'll teach them who the boss is. Since prices are down and the cows are not insured, this is a sure fire way to get a tax deduction by writing off the loss of the entire herd. Heck fire, how hard is it to bottle feed 40 some odd calves? Who needs cows when there is milk replacer.

3. He decided to poison them to sue the feed company. Then why breed them. Why not wait till you wean the calves. Why not get registered cattle so you can make more. Why do it when the market is down?

Personally I can't see any scenario other than number 1. I feel sorry for them. Looks like they just lost as did my old employer who got the chicken feed that killed his quail. Those folks with the checkered past denied all liability in this as well even though the documentation proved otherwise. I guess it all goes to the Golden Rule. The one with the gold will always rule.

I hope this story changes for the better but I doubt it.

 

[Chris H]

Jo, tell your friends to keep their chins up. When a child goes missing, who is questioned most? The parents! I think the mindset of looking at the people closest follows this case, too.

Know what's in the back of my mind? I'm thinking domestic terrorism like that eco-whacko group that burned those new houses on the west coast, Washington or Oregon? Maybe some fringe peta whacko?

How secure is your friends feed storage?

Also, do they farm crops which Temik is used on? I'm wondering about a tragic accident, but I'd think that would be really obvious if that was the case. So, I'm back to domestic terrorism as most likely.

 

[Jogeephus]

I don't know about the security of his feed storage, probably like mine - nonexistant. We do use Temik here. Quite a lot of it. But it is not the time of year to be using it so its not likely any would be laying around cause chemical such as this are kept locked up pretty tight. Big question is how did it get in the bag of feed. I mean you never truly know anyone until you marry them but I just can't see these folks poisoning their own cattle cause they were so proud of them. I just don't know what to think. There also was a left wing liberal politician that got on the TV and accused them of killing their own cattle. (reminds me of the recent post of the cow with its head stuck under the fence)

 

[Beefy]

i started to ask about that yesterday. i figured they would be questioning the dad since he fed the cows.

also i started to ask if they use Temik on their farm. do they grow cotton or have any problems with hogs or coyotes?

another thing i was thinking...i dont know how much Temik would be required to kill a cow but if its not much someone could have just put some in the feedtrough beforehand and the dad came along and fed the cows on top of it not even noticing?

also, i had the same idea about someone injecting Temik in a bag of feed thru a "rat hole".

i'm thinking the enemy idea is more likely than domestic terror at this point.

 

[hillsdown]

1. A man comes home from work - (at a big cattle farm) and grabs a bag of feed and walks down the trough pouring the feed into the trough for some young cows he is fixing to breed. Cattle come up and eat. Cows begin to die. Cows die. He calls his family. They try to unbloat them but they all die. He calls the vet. They call the diagnostic lab. Turns out its temik in the feed. Other bags aren't tainted. Brand new bull they just bought dies too. Somewhere, somehow somebody poisoned a bag of feed. (How many of you have ever seen a torn bag at a feed store or a bag with duct tape covering a hole? Not saying this is what happened but are you concerned when you see this or is this a pretty common occurance)

by Jogeephus on Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:55 pm

Jo, I see this all the time with dog food, to milk replacer to a bag of Llama pellets (I never ever accept a bag like that, not now with all the wackos in this world). Now the law is, once it leaves the store it can't come back; but who is to ensure that someone that works there cannot tamper with it? Also if the bag is damaged coming off the delivery truck to the store it is the law that it can not be accepted. If someone can kill people without giving it a second thought why the h@ll would it be different for animals.

I really feel for your friends, this is a terrible situation and I hope it all gets resolved and the culprit/s are caught and prosecuted.

 

[GMN]

Isn't it always the victims that get persecuted?

First off I don't think the average person even knows or has heard of Temik I hadn't until i read this post. There must have been alot of it in that one bag to kill a whole herd, being the bags came from the feedmill, they are responsible-I'd tell your friends to hire a lawyer and my bet they will settle out of court, he can tack slander and emotional suffering on top of the loss of his cattle too.

GMN

 

[dun]

Isn't it always the victims that get persecuted?

First off I don't think the average person even knows or has heard of Temik I hadn't until i read this post. There must have been alot of it in that one bag to kill a whole herd, being the bags came from the feedmill, they are responsible-I'd tell your friends to hire a lawyer and my bet they will settle out of court, he can tack slander and emotional suffering on top of the loss of his cattle too.

GMN

I'm not a big fan of sueing, but when someone wont make right something of this magnatude, I'll go along with the suing option.

 

[Jogeephus]

Isn't it always the victims that get persecuted?

First off I don't think the average person even knows or has heard of Temik I hadn't until i read this post. There must have been alot of it in that one bag to kill a whole herd, being the bags came from the feedmill, they are responsible-I'd tell your friends to hire a lawyer and my bet they will settle out of court, he can tack slander and emotional suffering on top of the loss of his cattle too.

GMN

I'm not a big fan of sueing, but when someone wont make right something of this magnatude, I'll go along with the suing option.

I don't believe in suing either unless its an act that malicious or shear negligence. I don't think we'll ever find out where it came from. Could have been put in at the feed store, in his barn or at the mill. But I just can't see them doing it themselves this is just crazy. I can see the mill's point but for PR reasons they should not be wavering in what I'm told was their initial statement. Heck, I bragged on them. But if it plays out like it sounds, I won't be buying anything they have to sell. I mean mean how much money are we talking here? For the mill with insurance, its nothing. For the family, its everything.

To give you an idea how potent this is, a cup full is probably all it would take to kill the herd. Its granular and I think the carrier is ground up corn cobs similar to ant bait so it would blend with feed easily. It is not something you leave laying around if you value your dogs, cats or chickens. A sprinkling of this on a hotdog tossed to a curr dog will kill it within a few steps of where it ate its last meal. Its extremely dangerous.

 

[bigbull338]

if he or some1 else put it in the feed at the farm or somewhere else.the feed sack wouldve been open.an you could tell if sack was tampered with.because its hard to sew a sack back shut.im sure the feedstore or feedmill dont want to pay out the $150,000 without being sued.because no 1 wants to admitt falt.an if they pay off they are admitting falt.so it will be settled in court.

 

[Jogeephus]

if he or some1 else put it in the feed at the farm or somewhere else.the feed sack wouldve been open.an you could tell if sack was tampered with.because its hard to sew a sack back shut.im sure the feedstore or feedmill dont want to pay out the $150,000 without being sued.because no 1 wants to admitt falt.an if they pay off they are admitting falt.so it will be settled in court.

My MIL gave me the local paper and the sheriff is quoted as saying another 37 cows died in two counties to the north. I don't believe this cause this is coming from a politician with a camera in front of his face and I pretty sure my info is better than what's in the paper. But if this is true - and I doubt it - I expect they will wish they never recanted their original words. After all, I'm pretty confident I could have made all parties happy with some satisfactory bred replacements which would have cost less than $40,000. But as Bigbull points out, the mark is probably going to be much higher now that the attorneys' seem to be getting involved. Not to mention the bad taste folks around here are going to have in their mouth toward that company. Everybody is going to lose cept of course the attorneys. It really is a bad situation for all parties concerned.

 

[Beefy]

did they test the empty feedsacks? it looks like if they found traces in the feedsack that would answer some of the questions.

 

[Crowderfarms]

I remember another like situation quite a few years ago in Okeechobee, Fl. where contaminated feed killed a large number of cattle, but way back then, the Feed Company fessed up to the problem and paid out.

 

[kerley]

Isn't it a shame when good, honest, people suffer such a large loss, and the only one coming out ahead is some )((*(**^$%^ Attorney.

 

[Jogeephus]

did they test the empty feedsacks? it looks like if they found traces in the feedsack that would answer some of the questions.

My understanding is that they had 10 unopened sacks in the barn. They tested these and found them to be negative. Only positive test came back from the one sack he opened and what feed was left in the trough. There was plenty of feed left in the trough cause this stuff acts almost immediately.

 

[Jogeephus]

Isn't it a shame when good, honest, people suffer such a large loss, and the only one coming out ahead is some )((*(**^$%^ Attorney.

It is. This is what gets my goat. My MIL knows his wife real well. Said she was crying just as she would have had she lost a baby. Now for them to be treated with distrust rather than compassion - that's what gets me. But like someone mentioned the investigators are just doing their job and they see a bunch more twisted things than I can ever fathom.

 

[jt]

anyone know if they ever got to the bottom of this?

jt