Milkweed and Monarchs 🦋☠ 🐮

A few months back I posted several articles that I found in my research and reading about milkweed – how it’s wonderful for wildlife and really poisonous for livestock.

There are darn good reasons why farmers spray it and work to eradicate it from their farm fields. It can kill horses and cattle if mixed with their hay. That’s a big deal if you depend on your land for your livelihood that keeps you living the rural life. Seeing an animal die a painful death is traumatic to all involved.

But we need milkweed to support butterflies and our ecosystem. Like everything, there is a time and place. A noxious weed on the farm can also sustain life of other species, be part of a healthy ecosystem. The efficiency of clearing fields of noxious weeds is blamed for the decline of many common butterflies.

What is the solution? Probably a mix of both farming and places where milkweed can be planted and sustained in yards, nature preserves and land set aside by private owners for conservation purposes.