DIGGING DEEPER - AG CHATS WITH AL
Real farmers, real conversations, practical insights and inspiring stories.
Join Al Micallef and special guests to help unlock your farm's production potential.
Whether it's in relation to drought or economic shifts, this podcast is your go-to for developing resilience in agriculture.
This podcast is made possible by the Future Drought Fund Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program co-funded by the Victorian and Australian Governments.
DIGGING DEEPER - AG CHATS WITH AL
DIGGING DEEPER - Navigating Hazards on the Farm: A Deep Dive into Plant Toxins
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Al opens 2026 by thanking listeners after the first full podcast year and outlining plans for more practical guests and more local producers, with monthly veterinary updates from Chelsea (Herd Solutions) and monthly livestock market updates from Morgs (Elders). Chelsea returns, briefly updates her healed foot injury, then discusses an increase in plant-toxicity risk with warm, humid autumn conditions and rain, including rising facial eczema spore counts and how to collect pasture samples cut to the base for testing. They cover paspalum staggers indicators, then review local toxicity cases: bracken fern linked to later bladder cancer when cattle were exposed during a wart outbreak (leading to euthanasia), bracken’s potential to cause hemolysis and red urine, St John’s wort causing photosensitization (primary and secondary) from roadside grazing, prussic acid (cyanide) toxicity causing sudden deaths after cattle ate dredged drain plants, and nitrate toxicity risks in overcast conditions and fertilized forages, including persistence in silage and testing options.
00:00 Welcome Back for 2026
01:04 Chelsea Returns and Toe Update
03:29 Back on the Horse
06:10 Horse Fitness and Rest Days
08:16 Why Plant Toxicity Spikes
09:08 Facial Eczema Spore Testing
11:54 Pasture Staggers and Temperature Thresholds
13:07 Local Toxic Plants to Watch
15:36 Bracken Fern Case Study
20:00 How Bracken Causes Bladder Cancer
21:50 Herd Risk and Hard Decisions
23:07 Why Thorough Exams Matter
23:53 Bracken Fern Blood Risks
25:17 Red Urine False Alarm
26:09 St Johns Wort Signs
29:48 How Photosensitization Works
32:42 Prussic Acid Sudden Death
38:02 Garden Waste Toxicity Chat
39:10 Nitrate Toxicity and Testing
41:54 Wrap Up and Thanks