Cattle eat cactus, but only after it's burned

Texas ranchers spend their afternoons hunting plants with flamethrowers. They aren't clearing brush or killing weeds; they're preparing dinner for their cows.

If a cow bites a raw prickly pear cactus, the needles pierce its tongue and throat, causing infections that can rot the animal’s jaw. The real killers are the glochids, which are tiny, invisible hair-spines that turn a cow's mouth into a pincushion of abscesses.

So, ranchers use a "pear burner"-a long propane torch-to blast the pads with high-intensity fire. The needles don't just fall off; they incinerate instantly.

Cattle have learned to recognize the sound of the propane tank hissing. As soon as the rancher sparks the flame, the herd will come running toward the fire like it’s an ice cream truck.

The heat does more than just remove the weapons. It singes away the waxy coating and slightly caramelizes the sugars inside the pads. The cows end up eating a hot, charred vegetable that is roughly 80% to 90% water, which keeps them hydrated when the ponds have dried into cracked mud.

A hungry cow will occasionally lose its patience and try to eat a pad that hasn't been scorched yet. This usually ends with "pear mouth," a condition where the cow's mouth is so full of thorns it can't close its jaw or swallow, eventually starving to death while surrounded by food.

The cactus itself is almost impossible to kill with these torches. The fire only burns the surface, leaving the core of the plant alive to sprout new, spiny pads for next year's drought.

Since prickly pear is low in protein, ranchers have to mix the burnt pads with cottonseed meal to keep the cows from wasting away. It’s a survival diet that turns a desert weapon into a juicy meal, but it only works if the rancher doesn't run out of fuel.

It makes you wonder how the first person figured this out, or how many cows had to starve before someone decided to hit a cactus with a torch just to see what happened.