Re: [AlpacaTalk] Re: FEEd- A great Alpaca feed
Carolyn,
We never noticed major problems in our herd from the feed, either, for
years. However, we did not have adundantly healthy animals, either.
After the mill that produced the WABA pellet was sold to CHS, a
subsidiary of Land o Lakes, we did begin to see problems. You see, they
buy the cheapest ingredients they can find, and make the mix match the
Guaranteed Analysis. Sometimes our alpacas would eat the pellet with no
problem, other times with other runs, they wouldn't touch them. We had
no idea why at the time. We figured it was the same feed from run to
run...
Around 2004, when the mill was sold to CHS, we did start to see:
Excessively high rates of pregnancies slipping. Milk production
problems, the fleece blowouts I mentioned, and then Color Champion at
halter, Sable, died of a perforated ulcer on her first birthday.
Actually, she died before shearing, but it was later that year that we
saw those micron results. So that year, over half of our dams came up
open, Sable died, and the entire herd had micron increases of between 4
and 10 microns in one year. We had never seen that in our previous 7
years of raising alpacas. The only variable was the pellet. So we did
something about it! :) And I will never, never, go back to feed product
based on grain or by-products. And never one that was mass produced in
a facility that uses ionophores (LOL tragedy).
We used to be thrilled when we'd get a weanling/yearling with a 20µ
result! My Scirocco was the first sub-20 we had, and he was an
impressive 16.6µ, DRG. That was in 2005, when we still fed the WABA
pellet. I can only wonder what his would have been on good feed! But
since we changed the feed, almost all of our weanlings/yearlings are
16-19µ, and they stay low.
As I said, one ton of pellet lasted 3 months for our 50+ head herd. So
those with fewer alpacas who want to make a change might think about
"going in" on this type of adventure. Or, if you just commit to it for
your alpacas' sake, others with the same interest will come to you. We
never really expected to have so many people feeding these pellets.
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
Creswell, OR
541.895.0964
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
http://www.whitelot
http://tech.
On Dec 23, 2008, at 10:15 AM, sesamedame@aol.
> Based on my own herd (around 60) observations and having always fed
> free
> choice hay supplemented with grain based pellets.....
> observe any
> signs of blowout due to the pellets. Our crias are fairly fine
> 20micron and
> lower for the most part. Our adults haven't experienced drastic
> changes in
> micron....just a bit of increase each year for the most part which
> would be
> fairly common as they age. Some adults are actually staying fine for
> their
> ages and colors. We, like Laurel, are focusing many of our current
> breeding
> decisions on both males and females that are retaining fine microns
> well into
> 8-10 yrs of age.
>
> We do fleece and halter shows with good results. We don't supplement
> with
> fiber nutrients. We are limited on pasture space and don't have ample
> lush
> pastures for the animals to graze all day long, so a large part of
> their
> diet is free choice hay. I have seen some animals leave our farm to
> go to lush
> pastures where they fatten up and coarsen cosiderably.
> that
> over indulging can certainly cause blowout based on my limited
> observations.
>
> I do wonder a bit if my 16-17 micron yearlings would have even finer
> fleece
> if they were entirely grain free? Wouldn't that be awesome!
>
> Carolyn Marquette,
>
> PartyLite Gifts _PartyLite.com_ (http://www.partylit
>
> The AlpacaRosa _www.TheAlpacaRosa.
> 2251 Sesame St
> Mogadore, OH 44260
> 330-699-2182
> 330-618-9769 cell
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
posted by Chaddo at 7:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home