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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Re: [AlpacaTalk] RE:Heather

 

Thanks Heather
 

Tina Hunt 636-459-8930



From: Heather Zeleny <alpacatalk@gmail.com>
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, January 27, 2011 1:35:50 PM
Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] RE:Heather

 

Oh, sorry! I got sidetracked. :)


Well, there's not a lot to the story. After losing that little female on Feb 1, 2005, and coincidentally, all of our fleeces were horribly blown out that year at shearing that May, we felt it HAD to be the feed. By the way, the mill that produced that local feed had been purchased by a Land O Lakes subsidiary around that time...

So my mom found a custom feed mill which is organic certified, about 40 minutes away from us. It took quite a long time to get it formulated, the owner/nutritionist at the mill did extensive research, not only with Norm Evans' book, but she spoke with Dr van Saun, Dr Cebra. 

As far as heat in regards to vitamins, yes, heat does affect vitamins, but all feeds are manufactured in the same manner, and I really know nothing about it so I can't speak about that. I do know that we have some of the most complete and balanced feed, with a minimal amount of grain. 

You can find custom mills all over the country, our local feed store gave us the name of ours, but there are websites that list all organic feed mills.


Heather

Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
Oregon

Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece


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



On Jan 27, 2011, at 11:25 AM, Tina Travis wrote:

 

    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



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









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