When you buy from Ronald
C. Leimgruber Farms, you’re buying hay that we grow ourselves. By carrying
out every stage of the process of growing and baling hay, we know exactly how good our products are. And because you’re buying direct from the grower, you can feel assured about the quality of the product
that you are purchasing.
Our hay is blister beetle free.
Ask any hay grower in the Imperial Valley: hay from this area is safe from blister beetle contamination.
What are blister beetles?
Blister beetles are a species of beetle that has a blistering agent (cantharidin) in their hemolymph
(the blood of insects). While toxic to all livestock, horses are particularly
susceptible to reactions from contact with the cantharidin. This blistering agent
causes irritation to the lining of the stomach, small intestine, bladder and urethra, and if consumed in great enough quantity,
can be fatal to horses.
How do blister beetles end up in hay?
Hay is only contaminated with blister beetles if it has pieces of a great number of insects baled
up in the bale. While the amount of cantharidin in a single insect varies with
the different types of beetles, academic research shows that a lethal dose for a horse would be 80 to 130 blister beetles. A single beetle is highly unlikely to cause a fatality. This large amount of beetles can be concentrated in one bale of hay because of blister beetles’ tendency
to swarm, or congregate in large numbers. It is also unlikely that you will find
a live or whole blister beetle in hay. Once the hay is cut, a live blister beetle
will crawl out of the windrow (row of cut hay) as the grower waits for the freshly mowed hay to dry. The problem arises when the grower cuts the hay and the hay is passed through a crimper, a common practice
on commercial farms. A crimper crushes the stem of the grass so that it dries
more quickly, which allows the hay to be baled sooner and increases the quality of the hay.
A blister beetle can be crushed in the crimper. Because the cantharidin
remains potent on the fragments of a crushed beetle, a high concentration of crushed bits from lots of beetles can be potentially
toxic to horses.