By George Snyder Chronicle North Bay Bureau
A fungus that naturally produces LSD and flourishes in cool, damp weather Is causing heavy losses in sheep flocks In western Marin County and the southwest tip of Sonoma County.
The fungus ergot grows on rye grains and rye grass, which Is used extensively on North Bay pastures where sheep graze. Although a derivative of the fungus is used to control migraine headaches in people, ergot in its natural state is harmful if consumed.
Ergot poisoning causes older sheep to become disoriented. The animals suddenly stiffen and lose their balance, with their muscles locked, the sheep often tumble head over heels on steep hillsides or fall into ditches or stock ponds and die. A sheep that ends up on its back and is unable to rise suffocates because its stomach crushes its windpipe.
When ewes are stricken with the ailment, newborn lambs are left to wander bleating in vain for their mothers and milk.
Ergot infestation and poisoning generally strike at the height of the midwinter lambing season, and ranchers expect a small amount of livestock losses each year. This winter, the problem has become deadlier because of the state's drought.
In the 31 years I've practiced in western Marin and western Sonoma counties, this is the worst I've ever seen it, said Petaluma veterinarian Dr. William Barr.
Experienced ranchers say they expect their sheep losses to at least double this season. They have yet to estimate a dollar amount of the damage.
Rye Grass
In the moist, coastal fogs that blow in from the ocean and Tomales Bay in late summer, ergot readily forms on the rye pasture grass. Usually, early fall rains wash the ergot from the remains or summer grass. The rain also allows rangelands produce new grass in time for lambing season. Last year however the rain showers in the fall were almost nonexistent. Animals are now eating the remains of old ergot-infested grass which has not been cleansed by wet weather.
Gordon Thornton, a 63-year old rancher, usually has about 900 ewes and 130 dairy cows on the 1000 acres of ridgetop land that make up the Thornton Dairy and sheep ranch near Tomales.
This season Thornton said ergot poisoning killed about 50 of his ewes worth an estimated $5,000 counting unborn offspring.
"We've always had somewhat of an ergot problem because of our particular climate but this is particularly bad," said Thornton whose pastures have been owned by his family since the 1850s. It's not just me, my neighbors are also having big losses.
Some historians, including author Mary Kilbourne Matossian of the University of Maryland, contend that periodic outbreaks of mass hysteria in medieval and pre-industrial Europe can be blamed on ergot poisoning of rye food crops before the potato became a food staple.
Closer to home, however, ergot is causing a panic of another sort --economic.
Along with the drought, falling lamb prices and hungry coyotes throughout western Marin and Sonoma counties, ergot poisoning is hitting the area's sheep ranchers particularly hard.
These days, sated buzzards perched on fenceposts have become a common sight throughout sheep country.
Ranchers have been trying to fight the ergot problem by feeding their animals more hay, but with hay running as much as $145 a ton --another legacy of the drought --the extra feeding has turned into an expensive proposition.
"It's a double whammy," said rancher Lee Erickson, who along with his father, Lee Roy Erickson, keep 600 head of sheep and 110 head of cattle on 300 acres in Marin County near Marin-Sonoma border.
"First, there's no pasture from the drought and what there is contains the ergot. It means our hay bills are double," Erickson said. "Where we used to feed 25 to 40 tons of hay (a season), now it's twice that. Every day we feed the extra hay, it's like giving away an other lamb. A ranch is a store. If you have a reduced number of units to sell but increased overhead at some point you go out of business."
In addition, lambs that do reach market are fetching low prices this year, partly because of sheep buyers' recent consolidation into a single concern in Dixon near Sacramento. With the next closest sheep market in Denver, ranchers say it ls impossible to shop around for better deals.
"We were getting 57 cents per pound live weight last year, this year it's 49 cents for fat lambs," said Erickson. "People don't understand that when they see lamb for sale (at grocery stores) at $4 a pound, most of that isn't coming to us."