Back in the early 1970s a chemical called PBB (Polybrominated Biphenyl) was introduced into the food chain by a Michigan Farm Bureau elevator. PBB is a closely related chemical to PCBs (Polychlorinted Biphenyls) only the halogen is Bromine instead of Chlorine it was produced by the Michigan Chemical Corporation in St Louis Michigan, MCC was a subsidiary of the Velisicol Chemical Corporation. PBB was manufactured as a fire retardant sold under the trade name "Firemaster" it was often added into plastics, the same plant also produced magnesium oxide which is used as a rumen buffer in dairy rations to prevent high rumen acidity and butterfat depression caused by dairy rations that were low on long stem roughage. it was sold under the trade name "Feedmaster". What exactly happened is still not clear it is thought that between 150 and 1500 pounds of PBB was mis-packaged in Feedmaster bags and eventually sold and shipped to Farm Bureau who incorporated it into Dairy rations. The resulting contamination and attempted cover up of it by Michigan Farm Bureau, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and eventually the US Department of Agriculture is documented in several books. The farmers who had their herds poisoned were told they were incompetent, didn't know what they were doing and were trying to blame the results of their poor herd management on Farm Bureau and trying to scam Farm Bureau and their insurance company. Understand at this time it was only the most progressive and educated dairymen that were adding rumen buffers, it was a new practice and hadn't been fully accepted by most dairymen.
The only reason we eventually found out what happened and we only found out after several years of contaminated and poisoned cattle being sent off to slaughter to further poison people was that one of the farmers who was contaminated was a 3rd or 4th generation dairyman who originally didn't want to run his family dairy. He studied Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University and worked for DOW chemical in Midland Michigan. He changed his mind and returned to his family's dairy in Western Michigan a few years before the contamination. The combination of his education and the determination to find out why his dairy herd was sick meant he became a formidable adversary to Michigan Farm Bureau and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and eventually the USDA. He had asked one of his friends still in the chemical business to run a Gas chromatography analysis of the feed he believed was contaminated. Their milk production radically dropped after receiving one particular batch of feed that looked different, they had segregated that batch of feed and purchased a new batch of feed trying to re-establish their milk production. To make a long story short (to late eh?) the friend forgot to turn of the gas chromatograph and they got a distinct peak in the results 12-14 hours into the test that indicated the presence pf PBB.
This might of caused science to progress and modern scientific methods to trickle down to industry much faster than otherwise might happen. When in college in the late 70's and early 80's at Michigan State University I was told that unless I went to work in some analytical chemical field I would never see a gas chromotgraph, 10 years later the rendering company I worked for had two of them running side by side on the bench in our corporate lab.
The farmer who unraveled all of this wrote a book about it called "Bitter Harvest" detailing what happened to him and his families farm, other farmers and the efforts of himself, his DVM and others. Other books are "PBB an American Tragedy" and "The poisoning of Michigan"
I earned probably one of the last Dairy Science Degrees Michigan State University ever conferred since they switched everything over to Animal Science while I was attending. I attended between 1977 on 1982 so some of the fall out was still pretty fresh in the Dairy Science Department and yes I am probably still carrying trace amounts of PBB in my body fat 40 years later, we don't know the long term effects but it is probably a carcinogen so I may have some rare and unusual cancer in my future, isn't that just wonderful?
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
Sell 1958 Hi-Altitude Massey Fergerson tractor, original condition. three point hitch pto engine, Runs well, photos available upon request
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
