The age-old debate between developers and rural folk, usually centering on lifestyle, is taking a different turn in this southwestern Riverside County community.

Rancher Janie Easterbrook claims contact with a housing development has killed three pregnant black angus breeding cows, which sell for $1,500 each and can produce calves worth $600 each.

What did the cows in, the operator of the 36-acre Hare Creek Ranch on Grand Avenue said, is "hardware disease."

That's what the veterinary community dubs what happens when a cow eats nails or other bits of metal. The problem begins when the metal picked up by an unaware bovine in a mouthful of feed or grass lands in the animal's first stomach. Cows have four stomachs.

Bits of metal can stay there for some time without causing damage. However, when internal pressures increase, sometimes due to the stress of pregnancy, experts say the stomach contracts. The nail pierces the stomach wall.

The shard then travels up inside the cow and can pierce the fluid sac around the heart, causing a fluid buildup that eventually kills the animal.

Easterbrook claims the builders of the Hidden Creek development, which was begun earlier this year and borders her property, have tossed construction debris into her pasture, and that debris is making its way into her animals.

Autopsy reports for the three cows, the last of which died last weekend, listed the cause of death as hardware disease. That is confirmed by Easterbrook's veterinarian, Dr. Marc Laxineta.

Easterbrook, who has been raising cattle at the ranch since 1993, said, "I never lost a cow to hardware disease before they started building. It just tears you up."

The developer denies any responsibility for the problem.

"I don't know to what debris she is referring," said Tim Marquard, an official with The

Meeker Co., the developer. "None of our guys have put anything on her property that I'm aware of."

If the cows are putting their heads through the fence to eat the occasional shrub and picks up a nail, Marquard wonders why.

"They wouldn't be sticking their heads through the fence if they had any grass," Marquard said. "If I thought for one second I was jeopardizing her cattle, the subcontractors would get one chance to clean it up and if they didn't, they wouldn't be subcontractors on this project anymore."

Easterbrook said the nails could have been hidden in the grass growing on her side of the fence at the time.

She said she asked Marquard three times to fix the problem. Marquard maintains Easterbrook talked to him only once. He said the only debris on her property then was packing paper, and it was promptly picked up.

Dr. Patricia Blanchard of the University of California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Tulare said hardware disease is common in cows, but steps can be taken to prevent the problem.

"It's pretty common for cows just to eat things," Blanchard said. "They tend to eat in mouthfuls and not notice."

Blanchard said the problem usually occurs after cows get a bit of bailing wire in their hay.

But several ounces of metal may be the best prevention, experts say.

Most cows are fed magnets to keep metal bits from poking through the stomach wall. The magnet sits in the stomach, Blanchard said, and attracts the metal, keeping it from piercing the wall when the stomach contracts.

Though not a guarantee of safety, the magnets have proven to be worth the $10 per cow cost, Blanchard said.

Easterbrook's cows do not have magnets. She said she never had a problem before and did not think magnets were necessary. Easterbrook said she plans to feed her cows magnets this weekend.

Borre Winckel, executive director of the Riverside chapter of the Southern California Building Industry Association, said a conflict like this is rare and unfortunate.

"There is forever the conflict between the building industry providing for the need for housing and the feeling of infringement by those in the country," he said.

Other developer-farmer conflicts have occurred in the region in the past, most notably the deaths of cows and other livestock due to oleander poisoning. The oleander grows fast, is drought resistant and attractive, making it popular with developers. However, the plant is also highly toxic.

Blanchard said cows will usually not eat the leaves off the plant itself, but she has seen a number of cows die after eating oleander clippings tossed into pastures.

But as for hardware disease problems caused by developers, both Blanchard and Nathan DeBoom of the Milk Producer's Council say they have not heard of this problem before.

"We haven't had any complaints like this before," DeBoom said. "It seems the developers do a pretty good job containing their excess materials."

Thomas Buckley can be reached by e-mail at tbuckley@pe.com or by phone at (909) 245-2934.

Published 9/25/1999