Fw: [AlpacaTalk] RE:Heather

 

    Would love to hear about the Alfalfa feed...... please scroll down to my questions..Thank you,T
 

Tina Hunt 636-459-8930

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Tina Travis <traviselkhornalpacas@yahoo.com>
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, January 27, 2011 12:05:17 PM
Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] RE:corn

Heather great info...The alfalfa feed I have questions about;Dr.Steve Hull spoke about this recently commenting that the heat it takes to bind the Alfalfa pellets,cubes,ect.damages the nutrition.Can you speak to that with this feed? I forgot to mention minerals very important especially if you are doing the No Grain move on your farm.Would like to know the info on processing with this feed you are using.Thanks!!!

Tina Hunt 636-459-8930

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From: Heather Zeleny <alpacatalk@gmail.com>
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, January 27, 2011 11:33:11 AM
Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] RE:corn

 

Dr Chris Cebra at Oregon State has been lecturing for years about the problems of feeding corn to livestock, especially camelids. We lost a color champion solid dark rose grey female to a perforated ulcer on her first birthday when we fed the locally made alpaca pellet, that was fed by a large number of farms in the region. The corn and other mystery "grain by-products" or "agricultural by-products" are just not good food for alpacas. Actually not good food for any livestock. 

After this death occurred, my mom had a custom feed made based on alfalfa, with only enough grain to act as a binder to keep the pellet form. 

Yes, people will tell you that all of those grain products must be fine feed, otherwise why would they feed it? Well, cattle only get grain in the feed lots during the last month or so before slaughter. And while they are in those feed lots, they are quite sick and need to be dosed with antibiotics to keep them alive until slaughter. 

I have seen many studies showing this by-product or that, are quality animal feeds. I have even seen papers saying that poultry litter is excellent livestock feed. 

This topic has been discussed at length here and other discussion groups. 

One more quick point regarding beet pulp, I don't think it's necessary to feed it for the purpose of adding fiber to the diet, hay itself is really chock full of fiber. And I have read that many alpacas are allergic to it. And certainly the product treated with molasses is not advised at all.

Simpler is better. If we did not have our custom feed, we would feed nothing but our 2nd cut orchard grass hay with free choice Stillwater 104 mineral/vitamin mix, and some dairy grade alfalfa, no more than 1 lb per head per day.

Heather

Heather Zeleny

White Lotus Alpacas

Oregon

Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece

http://www.whitelotusalpacas.com

http://whitelotus.openherd.com

http://www.facebook.com/White.Lotus.Alpacas

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