Well, this is certainly not something one expects: a patch of grass, on which cattle have been happily grazing for 15 years, abruptly starts producing cyanide gas, killing the cows. Freakish:

Three weeks ago, the cattle had just been turned out to enjoy the fresh grass, when something went terribly wrong. "When our trainer first heard the bellowing, he thought our pregnant heifer may be having a calf or something," said Abel.  "But when he got down here, virtually all of the steers and heifers were on the ground.  Some were already dead, and the others were already in convulsions." Within hours, 15 of the 18 cattle were dead.

"That was very traumatic to see, because there was nothing you could do, obviously, they were dying," said Abel. Dr. Gary Warner, an Elgin veterinarian who specializes in cattle, conducted the 15 necropsy.  Preliminary tests revealed the Tifton 85 grass, which has been here for years, had suddenly started producing cyanide gas, poisoning the cattle.

The grass in question is called Tifton 85, a type of Bermudagrass. It should be stressed that despite initial reports saying that Tifton 85 is a genetically modified (GM) grass, it is not a GM crop; it was created through conventional hybridization. As it turns out, it is not completely unheard of for certain types of grasses to start producing cyanide as a defense mechanism, particularly when “stressed,” as when a drought occurs, as has been the case in Texas.

"Coming off the drought that we had the last two years ... we're concerned it was a combination of events that led us to this," Dr. Gary Warner, an Elgin veterinarian and cattle specialist who conducted the 15 necropsies, told Kelly.

What is more worrisome: Other farmers have tested their Tifton 85 grass, and several in Bastrop County have found their fields are also toxic with cyanide. However, no other cattle have died.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are dissecting the grass to determine if there might have been some strange, unexpected mutation.

Still, one species’ poison is another species’ meat:

"The grasshoppers are enjoying it now," he said.