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Vegetation Management

Program Contact: Tipton Hudson, County Director
(509) 962-7507 • hudsont@wsu.edu

Poisonous Plants for Livestock in Kittitas County

Livestock have a remarkable ability to largely avoid poisonous plants. They learn about safe foods from their mother, and they have a variety of aversion mechanisms to avoid consuming the same toxic plant again following a negative experience, assuming they live. In addition, many toxic plants are quite unpalatable or distasteful. However, under certain circumstances, domestic animals will consume poisonous plants:

  1. When available or provided foodstuffs are undesirable
  2. When available forage is not sufficient to meet nutritional requirements for the individual
  3. When the toxic plant is at a particularly tasty stage of growth
  4. When insufficient water is provided forbs (weeds) may be selected to boost water intake

This table provides some of the most common poisonous plants in Kittitas County: Kittitas County Poisonous Plants