Rye-grass toxicity: country spirit shines after WA farming family loses thousands of dollars worth of hay

A Perth Hills family who lost thousands of dollars worth of hay to annual rye-grass toxicity has been left feeling “humbled and grateful” after a remarkable display of generosity from the farming community. The family, who did not want to be named, was forced to destroy a shed full of oaten hay this week after dozens of bales they had bought just days earlier tested positive to ARGT. The “devastating incident” prompted an urgent call to arms from volunteer group Emergency Animal Support Evacuation WA, which took to Facebook on Wednesday morning to spread the word. Within 12 hours, every bale — enough to feed the family’s 300 sheep, two horses and 15 pregnant cows — had been donated. EASE WA founder Dusty Murray told Countryman the family was “exceptionally humbled” by the generosity of farmers, businesses and “everyone else who donated”. “We hit the target very quickly and the family is all covered now. They’re very grateful: a few tears of gratitude were dropped,” Ms Murray said. “We’ve got over 54,000 followers on the EASE WA Facebook page and we can absolutely always rely on the community to step up when we ask. “The people who always step up very quickly are farmers, but they’re also the hardest to deal with because they never need help, they never want charity.” Ms Murray said the infected hay was bought from a certified grower and tested negative before the purchase. The family realised something was amiss when their two horses fell seriously ill, so they immediately contacted the grower. “It’s not the grower’s fault. Bless him, he went and retested and it came back positive, so he rang around everyone he’d supplied,” Ms Murray said. “We all got phone calls at 6am saying ‘pull the hay out now, watch your animals’. I know that for a fact because my own horse had one of those bales.” Ms Murray’s horse — a stout gypsy cob named Guinness — was unharmed. “Not every bale will have the toxicity, and I just seem to have been very lucky that out of that batch, my bale seems to have been OK,” she said. “But other people haven’t been so lucky.” The farming family from Perth Hills is now waiting to learn whether their horses — which are still under vet care — will recover, and are monitoring a few sheep also showing symptoms of poisoning. “They’re keeping a really close eye on the sheep,” Ms Murray said. “The cattle — they’re all pregnant, they’re all due to calf down in the next week, and they were all fed the same stuff.” ARGT is a serious and often fatal disease that occurs when livestock eat rye-grass seedheads infected with a toxin-producing bacterium, which accumulates in the animal’s system. With cases on the rise, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has urged farmers to watch for signs in sheep, cattle and horses including shaking, clumsy gait, jaw champing and dullness, followed by an inability to rise, convulsions and, in severe cases, death. DPIRD vet Anna Erickson said a perfect storm of weather conditions was causing cases to increase for the second year in a row. “I have investigated five cases in recent months and carried out pre-emptive pasture testing for many more,” she said. “Many of those tests have come back positive.” Dr Erickson said ARGT was common in the Wheatbelt, but cases were occurring in the South West and along the coastal plain. She advised against buying untested hay and urged farmers to monitor livestock closely as animals could recover if removed off toxic pasture early. Ms Murray echoed Dr Erickson’s comments, saying many small-scale livestock owners had never even heard of ARGT. “They’ve got no idea what the hell it is,” Ms Murray said. “Particularly your smaller landholders — your five and 10 acre people — they’re buying stuff that’s not tested, stuff that people are just baling up in their back paddock. Then their alpacas and their sheep are getting sick and they’re like, ‘why has my animal died?’ “It’s really imperative that the education on rye-grass toxicity gets out there. Anyone can get a test kit from DPIRD and test for it themselves.”