[AlpacaTalk] Re: The real question on hay feeding?????????

Hi Sharon and Jim,
I was waiting to see if others had insight into this before posting..
but no one has!

I don't see how fluffing hay or not would have any affect on cows'
milk production. Is this anectotal or proven, or even a myth?

We used to fluff hay. Now we do not. When we did fluff the hay we were
also giving MSM daily as a preventative wormer as we had had massive
liver fluke infestation/infection. We think it was the MSM that blew
out the fiber, as it is sulphur based. So we don't know if fluffing
hay had any affect on our alpacas' fleece or milk production. Our
babies this year as a group had heavier birth weights than any other
previous year. :) At the same time, we had two 2 year olds who had
AFDs of under 20µ, and two almost yearlings with AFDs 20 or under, one
was 16.6! We are no longer supplementing with MSM, by the way. So I'd
say we have havier babies and better fleece not fluffing hay. I can't
really measure milk production, but the babies are doing very well.
And we haven't really kept up with weighing the babies past one month
of age. As long as they are growing well and have good body scores...
It's a manpower issue.

Does anyone else have observations on this subject?

Heather Zeleny
West Wind Alpacas
1150 Darlene Ln. #199
Eugene, OR, 97401

voice: 541.868.6976

http://www.westwindalpacas.com/
http://www.alpacanation.com/westwind.asp

--- In AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com, Sharon or Jim Dear
<sldear2001@y...> wrote:
>
> Take an alpaca farm. One person is an old dairy farmer, the other
person is not barn experieced, The farmer insists on fluffing the hay
with a pitch fork, the non farmer does not.
> 6 months later the non-farmer says to the farmer why aren't you
using the pitch fork and fluffing the hay any more? The farmer says
because you did not fluff and the alpacas will be affected by not
having the same manner of feeding (fluff versus putting out flakes of
hay) because i know that production animals (cows) are affected if
each person does not feed them the same way.
>
> Any imput on this subject would be welcomed.
>
> So I guess that was the real question to my asking eariler about
how do you feed hay to your alpacas?
>
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> Jim and Sharon Dear
> St. Lawrence County
> Potsdam, New York
> Alpacas came home 9-11-04
> THE DEAR ALPACA FARM
> www.dearalpacafarm.com
>
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> ---------------------------------
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holidays, whatever.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

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