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Lupine continues to be a serious economic problem to livestock producers in the western United States. Objectives are to 1) determine relationships between body condition and cows grazing lupine; 2) determine differences in lupine consumption between cows that had crooked calves and those that had normal calves; 3) compare blood alkaloid levels and excretion rates in cows that are susceptible to lupine compared to cows that are not. Native cows will come from ranches where lupine-induced crooked calf disease is endemic.
Lupine-induced "crooked calf disease" causes significant losses in the western U.S. In 1997 4,000+ calves from about 12,000 cows either died or were destroyed in Adams county Washington because of birth defects. This resulted in a $1.7 million direct loss and over $5 million in indirect losses in Adams county alone. Lupine-induced losses also occurred in Utah, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. We propose three experiments with WSU to examine why cattle ingest lupines: 1) grazing studies using 12 native cows to compare lupine grazing between cows that produced crooked calves verses cows that did not produce crooked calves. Grazing of lupine will be monitored throughout the grazing season and plants will be analyzed for teratogenic alkaloids. Incidence of crooked calves born next spring will be recorded; 2)ten cows in various body conditions will be used for grazing studies. 3)eight cow calf pairs and four open cows will be fed lupine in a pen study to compare alkaloid absorption and excretion.